


Some Who Wander

by Tinimo



Category: The Hobbit - All Media Types, The Lord of the Rings - All Media Types, The Lord of the Rings - J. R. R. Tolkien
Genre: Being Lost, Dimension Travel, F/M, Government Experimentation, Hurt Legolas, Hurt/Comfort, I'm bad at choosing tags, Kidnapping, Lost Legolas, Magic, Monsters, Protective Thranduil, The government is evil, Young Legolas Greenleaf
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-04-02
Updated: 2020-08-18
Packaged: 2021-03-01 04:55:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 27,525
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23449645
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tinimo/pseuds/Tinimo
Summary: After being pursued by a monster while walking through the forest, strange events find a young Legolas Greenleaf in a very different world than his own. With the help of some confused teenagers, he must survive in this strange new place all while evading a mysterious government agency hellbent on his capture.
Relationships: Legolas Greenleaf & Thranduil
Comments: 29
Kudos: 51





	1. Across the Pond

Legolas could not sleep. It wasn't a problem he, or very many other elves for that matter, encountered often, but tonight his mind was racing. 

During dinner that evening, while they celebrated the beautiful harvest moon shining above them, his father had told him a story of old; a story of dragons and brave warriors, and princesses in distress. He and the other children had gathered close around him listening intently as the court musicians had played their eerie tones, the music seeming to intertwine with the words and bringing the story to life. When he closed his eyes all he could see was the intense and fiery battle, heroes fighting monstrous beasts, and the clash of swords and maces. 

The house was completely silent now, as the servants and nobles had ended their work for the day and had gone to sleep. The silence of the house was broken only by the chirping of insects and the occasional hoot of an owl or other nightly bird. 

The notion that he might be the only one awake in the entire castle was terribly frightening, and after a while this fear began to press on his mind more than the story had. He listened closely for any sign of wakefulness from the palace, but the only noises he could make out were the sounds of the forest. 

He sighed deeply, frustrated at his lack of tiredness. 

Realizing that sleep was impossible, at least for now, he decided that the most logical course of action would be to tire himself out enough that he would simply fall asleep as soon as he returned. The plan was far from logically sound, but he was desperate to sleep, and it was far from the worst idea he imagined he could have come up with. 

That was how he had ended up on a walk through the dark gardens of the Mirkwood Palace, illuminated only by the bright harvest moon shining above him. He dearly loved the moon and the stars; as did all the elves. He smiled briefly as he took in the scent of the shade loving flowers surrounding the path, and the sounds of the insects chirping away high in the trees. 

He took care to keep to the shadows in the garden, unwilling to allow himself to be seen by one of the guards. He was sure of his safety in the garden, and it would do no good to be caught and dragged to his father’s room for a stern middle-of-the-night talking to. Besides, he was growing older and he could take care of himself. 

The beauty of the forest was nearly breathtaking, and he felt himself fall into a strange sort of trance. The sounds of the forest were much louder here, and the sweet smell of the flowers swirled around him as he wandered out of the gardens, and into the forest proper. 

He had been wandering for some time before he realized how far he’d gone. It was the silence that roused him from his trance, as the sounds of the insects and birds which had filled the air before had nearly totally vanished. He looked around wildly but the palace was nowhere in sight. The dark trees seemed to press around him as though they were trying to cage him in. These were not the kind trees of the gardens. These trees were tall and menacing, leering at him; the small elfling alone in the dark woods. He backed away, taking off as fast as he could in what he hoped was the direction he had come in. 

The only noise that permeated the forest now was the sound of his heavy breathing as he tried to escape the pressing darkness of the forest. After a while he stopped, leaning against one of the less frightening trees to try to catch his bearings. 

His rest was short lived however as he heard a loud rustling behind him and what sounded like a low hissing. He gasped and scrambled back as a giant spider emerged from the foliage of a massive oak tree, gripping some unfortunate woodland creature. The thing was huge and hairy with eight long, shiny legs and a pair of razor sharp pincers in front of it's large, hissing mouth. 

He was at once confused for he had not wandered into the territory of the spiders. He knew their territory well as his father had drilled into his head that he was never under any circumstances to enter it until he was properly trained to defend himself. The nests of the massive creatures weren’t exactly near the palace however, and it was almost unheard of for them to wander this close, even on accident. The spider must have wandered away from its territory, or been exiled for it to be this close to the palace. 

Legolas backed up against a tree, praying that the beast would overlook him, but alas a small elfling with white blond hair, clad in bright white nightclothes was far from difficult to spot, even in the dark woods. The spider indeed noticed him and immediately dropped the carcass it was holding. It began advancing on him slowly, like some great cat stalking its prey. Legolas gave a great shriek and took off through the woods, doing his best to weave through the roots of the trees.

The beast let out a thunderous hiss and gave chase. Legolas ran as fast as he could, weaving between trees and ducking under branches, the monster behind him growing ever closer. The trees around him seemed to laugh, egging the monster on at it chased its prey. 

Out of nowhere, a thick tree root caught his foot and with a loud shriek he slammed into the ground, the impact taking his breath away. He had no time to catch his breath however, for the spider was on top of him almost instantly, hissing with glee. Legolas desperately attempted to crawl away, but the creature would have none of it. Another scream was wrenched from his throat as one of the legs plunged down to stab deep into his ankle, drawing him back towards the spider. The pain nearly made him pass out, but he was determined to remain awake, to get far away from the spider, to stay alive. 

He looked around himself frantically, eyes open for any escape route. He spied a large tree branch a foot or two away from him, and almost out of instinct, grabbed it and hurled it at the beast, striking it squarely on its head. 

It did little, other than to startle the spider who had not expected its prey to fight back, and in a moment it had regained itself and was chasing him again, but that moment was long enough for Legolas to get up and sprint at full speed away from the spider, the burning pain of his wound temporarily numbed by his terror. 

The beast quickly recovered from the impact and once again began its pursuit of the elfling, hissing angrily and making a tremendous ruckus as it crashed through the dense underbrush. 

Knowing such a lucky escape would be unlikely again, and still possessing some common sense, he began to look for a way to lose the beast, be it a hole or a tree with low branches that he could climb. He searched feverishly, but found nothing he could reach quickly. As he ran, he could feel himself growing more and more out of breath, as the adrenaline that had coursed through him earlier began to fade. The beast seemed to be growing closer all the time, and he began to lose hope in his survival as outrunning it at this point seemed nearly impossible. 

Then something strange caught his eye. It was a light, shining pale and bright through the trees to his left. Despite his situation, the light drew him in, and he began to veer off in its direction. Drawing closer, he realized that the light was in fact coming from a sizable pool of water; Or perhaps the moon’s light reflected in it, as Legolas didn’t think that any magical glowing pools of water were present in Mirkwood. 

The strange nature of the pool Legolas did not dwell on, and at once ran for it, for the giant spiders hated and feared both light and water. He reached the edge of the pool and began to wade out as fast as he could, the surprisingly deep water reaching his chest almost disturbingly quickly. As he reached the middle however, he realized that something was wrong. 

In his panic to escape he had not noticed it, but now, with the spider hissing and snapping helplessly on the bank, he began to notice how hard it was to stay afloat. It could not have been for lack of swimming skills, for he was a very strong swimmer; but all the same he felt himself being dragged down into the pool. He struggled frantically against the invisible force, but only moments later he was dragged down completely. 

He expected the world around him to grow darker as he was pulled down into the abyss, but instead it seemed to grow brighter. Brighter and brighter until it was blinding and he had to close his eyes. It was then that he realized that he was spinning, around and around endlessly on an eternal downwards spiral, and then....

Everything was still, and dark, and quiet. 

He realized with a start that he was partially submerged in cold, shallow water. There was no glow to this water as there had been, which he found very strange. Had he only dreamed up the light? He pushed himself to a kneeling position and looked around. The spider was nowhere to be seen, and no trace of its destruction was visible. He breathed a sigh of relief, but it was short lived as he further examined his surroundings. 

He was no longer in the same place it seemed, as the trees here were thin and far apart and there were only short bushes and tall grass dotting the forest floor as opposed to the thick underbrush of the forest he knew. He bit his lip in contemplation. Perhaps he simply hadn’t noticed the trees thinning as he had approached the pond, and he had fallen temporarily unconscious due to shock. But then why were all traces of the spider gone?

Unease weighed heavily on his mind and he crawled forward out of the pond. This didn’t even look like Mirkwood, and yet where else could it be. He looked up to see a full harvest moon, largely unobstructed by the thin foliage. That was the same moon he had seen from his home, and this was most certainly not the same forest. 

He began to rise to his feet, but the moment he put weight on his damaged foot he sunk back to the ground, crying out in pain. The injury was worse than he thought, and without the distraction of imminent death he could fully feel the intensity of the burning pain. He felt a sob beginning to rise up in his throat. Why on earth had he thought it a good idea to venture alone into Mirkwood. His father had often warned him against it but he had not heeded his father's command and now he was injured and alone in a very unfamiliar place. 

Tears welled up in his eyes but he wiped them away. It would not do any good to cry, especially now that he began to finally realize how much the night had truly exhausted him.

His idea had worked, he thought bitterly, as he was suddenly overcome by an overwhelming desire for sleep. He was deeply concerned with his wound, though all he could do at the moment was wash it with the clear pond water, and wrap it in dry leaves. There was probably a better way to do it, but he was too bone weary to think of one. In the morning he could...Well he could do something; find help perhaps. Or maybe this was all just a bad dream that he could awake from, though that was unlikely. 

He noticed a small hole in the base of a nearby tree, and crawled to it; gathering some leaves along the way to serve as a cushion. He patted them down to his liking and curled up, falling into an uneasy sleep almost at once.

High above him an airplane began its descent.


	2. Toto, I Don't Think We're In Mirkwood Anymore

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Legolas spends his first day in our world, and finds himself in a very unfortunate situation.

Light grey eyes fluttered open, before immediately closing at the pain that assaulted the body that they belonged to. Legolas awoke, deeply frightened and confused, both at the pain and at the confusion as to where he had just woken up. How had he ended up here? Where was his home? Why was he lying on the ground? Why did his ankle feel like it was being ripped apart? 

In the corner of his vision he caught sight of a large, clear pond and his memories came rushing back to him. The sleepless night, the hellish spider, the lake, the light, the moon. And then he was here, in a strange part of the forest he didn't recognize. Sleeping in a tree trunk with an injured ankle bound sloppily in leaves. 

Overwhelming fear and sadness coursed through him, and this time he couldn't stop the tears running down his cheeks. Why, oh why, hadn't he heeded his father? Why had he been so stupid as to believe that wandering alone in the forest of Mirkwood alone at night would ever be a good idea. Even for a fully grown warrior it would have been dangerous, and he was far from that. He had probably been exceptionally lucky by all standards; he was still alive after all. Only horribly, horribly lost. 

He curled into a ball and cried into his knees, quiet sobs racking his small frame. He wasn't sure how long he stayed that way, but after a while he began to once again grow aware of the agonizing pain radiating from his ankle. With a last shuddering breath he uncurled himself as he sat up. His ankle hurt terribly, and it made his whole leg ache and throb with burning pain. It required attention, and given the situation, there was a high chance that it could be infected. This idea frightened him greatly, and he sent a tearful prayer to Estë for healing. Taking a deep breath, he unwrapped his ankle, daring a look at what lay beneath his makeshift bandage. 

Fear coursed through him as he took in the condition of his ankle. It was gross looking, red and swollen, with a nasty wetness around the wound itself. He pursed his lips in fearful contemplation. He was no healer, but the state of the injury looked like the beginning of an infection.

For several minutes he sat, staring at his leg, trying to plot out a course of action. It would be difficult to get to the pond, but it would probably be wise to clean his ankle as best he could. Then he could try to find herbs of some sort to treat the infection. He had been taught a few of the basic ones, and he was sure that he could identify the proper herb to use to treat infection. He sighed shakily, trying to reassure himself, and rose slowly to his feet. 

The action of standing ended up being more difficult than he had anticipated. He could put no weight on his right leg, and any attempt to do so ended in a sharp cry of pain and him nearly falling back to the ground. Eventually, he was able to hop to the pond with the help of a long stick he had found lying conveniently on the ground by his tree. 

He hobbled to the pond and managed to clean off some of the dirt and fluids that caked his wound before wrapping it again in clean leaves. 

Legolas then stood, or at least half stood while clutching madly to his stick, and surveyed the area a final time before beginning his slow walk into the woods. As he walked, he carefully surveyed the ground around him, looking for herbs that he recognized. A few plants and trees he recognized, or at the very least noticed to be similar to those in Mirkwood; however, he spotted nothing that could ease his condition. 

The sky was dark and cloudy; the lack of sunlight would do little to help his search. Frowning at the prospect of rain he continued on his slow journey through the woods, spotting a few rabbits and squirrels every now and then which gave him slight peace. He liked rabbits and it was nice to know that wherever he was he could at least depend on seeing their small, furry faces peering at him from the bushes. He smiled at one and bent down carefully, reaching out his hand for it to sniff, calling softly at it from the bushes.  
'  
'Come little one, I won't hurt you'' he cooed at the rabbit. It crept towards him, hesitantly at first, but with more confidence once he realized that Legolas' intentions weren't hostile. He smiled as it sniffed his hand and gently stroked its soft fur. ''Would that you could speak to me little one, perhaps you could tell me where I am'' The rabbit paid no attention to him and continued to sniff at his hand as Legolas petted it. 

He crouched there awkwardly for several more minutes before rising to his feet. The rabbit rubbed briefly against his leg before hopping away back into the underbrush. He looked on for a moment before continuing on his slow, deliberate trek through the woods.  
\------  
He had walked for several hours before he felt the first drop of rain, and he had hoped that it had been his imagination. 

The afternoon had bled into evening and he was weary of walking; rain was the last thing he needed. He would have returned to the pond and the hollow in the tree, but in his wandering he had lost his direction and very much doubted it he could find his way back. The unfamiliar flora around him had long since caused him to give up his search for healing herbs. He had no choice but to press on. 

The rain fell harder and harder and the night grew very dark until elven vision aside, he could barely see a thing. He stumbled forward and barely avoided falling over a tree root. The chill of the rain seemed to press in on him more than it should have and he shivered. It was an ill sign if an elf was chilled, and he guessed that his wound was to blame; it was a serious injury and probably exhausted his fëa to heal. Again he shivered and, clutching tighter to his stick, he turned right, following a natural bend in the underbrush. 

Rain dripped into eyes and soaked through his thin nightclothes as he walked on through the pitch black woods. His bad leg throbbed, more painfully now, and tears pricked at his eyes as he began to tremble with fear and exhaustion. He was bone weary, and felt as though he would collapse at any moment; his steps slow and forced, he depended entirely on the stick he held so tightly to himself. He hoped to find another hollow in a tree where he could spend the night, but the trees had grown thin and he couldn't hope to find even a bush to sleep under. 

Abruptly, the forest seemed to end and his feet tread upon what felt like some kind of rough stone. The change was so sudden that he stood still for a moment in shock. He could see very little to help him discern where he was; only the dark trees and the opening in them where the stone prevented their growth. The stone formed a thick line that seemed to stretch for miles, and Legolas guessed it to be a road of sorts, though he knew of no roads made of stone like this. 

Far away from him on the road that stretched to his left, a small light came into view. In his confusion he almost didn't see it, but it caught his eye and he turned to stare at it. He blinked several times, thinking that he must be imagining it, but the light remained. In fact, the longer he stared at it the brighter it seemed to grow. 

He also began to notice a strange whirring, growling notice that seemed to come from the light, and he noticed that it seemed to be attached to some shiny, dark object, though the light was too bright for him to make out what it was. He stared at the light, spellbound, as it grew brighter and brighter, consuming his entire field of vision until all he could see was the terrible brightness, and then it was upon him. 

There was a great, horrible screeching sound and Legolas fell back with a scream, paralyzed with terror and confusion, still staring at the bright light, which he now observed to be two bright orb like eyes, shining down at him from what seemed to be a great monster, rain running down it's iron face, leering down at the tiny elfling cowering beneath it. 

In his panicked state, he duly registered the sound of slamming and people shouting; he could only stare up in fear at the strange thing in front of him, shaking violently as tears dripped down his face. It wasn't until strong arms grasped his shoulders that he looked away from the beast into the face of a bewildered looking man. 

The man said something to him in a language he didn't recognize, and shook him gently, as though trying to break him out of a trance. Legolas only stared at him, frightened. 

Another male voice from somewhere beside him shouted something, and he heard a woman cry out in surprise. The man holding him sighed and shouted something at the people before turning back to Legolas and saying something in a manner that must have been meant to calm him. 

Legolas heard more talking, but could not register anything that may have been conveyed. He was lost in a trance of fear and confusion. The bright eyes of the monster engulfed his vision and the ice cold rain soaked him completely, eliminating all feeling that wasn't chill. 

So entranced was he that it took him a moment to realize that he was being carried. The man had picked him up and was carrying him around towards the side of the monster. He was quiet for a few moments out of shock, and then he began to panic. Rational thought left him as his exhausted mind rushed to think of a reason for him to be picked up. Disoriented, his mind settled on the idea that he was about to be fed to the monster.

His panic increased, and he began to struggle wildly, thrashing and screaming. He heard the man mutter what must have been a curse as he was forced to drop Legolas to the ground. Legolas hit the ground with a hard thud, landing unintentionally on his injured leg. The resulting pain that assaulted his body nearly made him pass out, and completely immobilized him for several moments, enough time for the man to scoop him up and carry him to the monster. 

He fought for a few moments, desperate to escape; however, he was too weak and in too much pain to be any sort of threat against the much larger form of the person carrying him. 

He heard a strange clacking sound, the man holding him said something to a person beside them, and then the rain was no longer falling on him. He looked around nervously, only to find himself in some sort of strange little room, lit dimly by some sort of strange lantern attached to the ceiling. The man had set him down on some sort of cushioned seat. In front of him were two other seats, in front of which there was a dark protrusion from the room which held a number of small, flashing lights, and a sort of wheel sitting in front of one of the chairs. Above them he could see a huge sheet of glass, out of which, illuminated by the eyes he had seen earlier, there was the expanse of dark stone.

The change was so abrupt, and so different then what he’d been expecting, that for several moments he could not think, only gaze around in confusion at the small room. He vaguely registered the man who had been carrying him speaking with the others, sounding almost angry. He shuddered, feeling the cold of the rain and his soaked clothes more intensely now that it was no longer pouring down on him. 

Something soft wrapped around him and he flinched, realizing after a moment that it was the man from before who was now wrapping him in a large blue blanket. He was rather surprised, though still too disoriented to do much about it. In the dim light of the small room, the man’s face was illuminated. He was younger than he had seemed in the bright light of the monster’s strange eyes. He had dark skin and eyes, and curly dark brown hair. Legolas stared at his hair for several moments, but the man seemed not to notice. The man gave him a small smile and patted him rather awkwardly on the shoulder, speaking to him again in the strange language. He paused, clearly waiting for a response, but when Legolas only stared at him blankly, he sighed and turned back to the others. 

They spoke for a few moments before seeming to come to some sort of agreement. He heard the clacking sound again, this time on his left, and realized that it was made by the opening of the doors to the small room. A woman came through the door, and sat beside him, followed by another man on his other side. They spoke quietly to each other, but stopped when the black haired man entered the room, sitting on the seat behind the wheel. He adjusted a few of the levers and buttons, and suddenly the room lurched forward, prompting a small gasp from Legolas. It took him a moment to realize that they were moving, very quickly, along the road. The dark trees visible from the windows on either side of the room seemed to fly by at unimaginable speeds, far more quickly than they had on any horse he had ridden. 

The man beside him shut off the lantern illuminating the room, and they were plunged into relative darkness lit faintly by the small lights at the front of the room. Despite the fright he had just endured, the darkness of the room accompanied by the soft rumble of it against the road as it moved and the calming feeling of its motion, caused him to feel extremely sleepy. None of the people in the room spoke a word as the room continued on its journey, and Legolas allowed himself to drift off to sleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, that was chapter 2, I hope y'all liked it. Next chapter we'll be meeting the lovely humans who nearly ran over Legolas, and hopefully get this plot going in some sort of meaningful direction. Until then, take care.


	3. A Night in the Rain

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A long car trip ends with Legolas finally receiving medical treatment. A short chapter, but much more coming soon.

Nathan was in shock. Total and utter shock. Never in a million years would he have expected to nearly run over some kid on the way to his uncle’s cabin in Washington. It was hardly their fault; they were still about an hour away from the cabin, and at least three hours outside of Seattle. Besides, it was pitch black outside, and pouring down rain, so Laura had no right to be as mad at him as she was. Let her try to see some kid in the middle of the forest in the pouring rain. It wasn’t like he had killed the kid or anything. 

Though on that note, the kid was badly injured. It was probably a good thing that he had nearly run her over in the long run, as her foot needed medical attention. Nathan had already rerouted the GPS to give him directions to the nearest hospital, but it would still be about two hours before they would make it. The kid seemed to have fallen asleep, a good thing considering how much her injury must hurt her. 

Speaking of the kid, now that they were out of the rain and in the dim light of the car, Nathan began to notice how strange the child looked. She had very long blond hair and almost disturbingly bright eyes, though they were now closed in sleep. Compounding this, she appeared to be dressed in old fashioned pajamas made out of some strange shimmery white material. Her strangest feature however, had to be the small, delicately pointed ears poking through her hair. It must have been some sort of deformity, but it only added to the child’s strange appearance. 

Eventually, after what felt like years, they arrived at the hospital. It wasn’t a children’s hospital, but Nathan didn’t want to wait any longer to get the kid’s wounds checked out by a doctor. Besides, he figured that any hospital that wasn’t a pet hospital would serve more or less the same purpose. 

As they pulled around Nathan felt a familiar tap on his shoulder; Alex. Alex turned briefly to look back at the sleeping child before whispering, “I’ll park the car if you want to be the one who takes the kid in.” 

“Why would I want to do that, why can’t you do that?” Nathan responded. 

Alex shrugged. “I just figured that since you were the one who rescued her, you should be the one to take her in”. 

“Rescued her, he nearly ran over her,” said Laura with a frown. Alex snickered, and Nathan ignored her. 

“All I’m saying,” said Alex with a grin, “Is that since you were the first one she saw, you should be the one to take her in. We don’t want her to freak out or anything if she wakes up and sees some stranger holding her.” 

Nathan rolled his eyes, but agreed. He knew that Alex probably just wanted to avoid any paperwork he might have to fill out, but it was always easier not to argue with him. 

They got out of the car, and Nathan gently picked up the child, trying his best not to wake her. The child stirred, but remained asleep. Alex pulled away as they walked into the hospital and into the lobby. 

The room wasn’t crowded, but Nathan still felt very awkward walking up to the woman sitting at the front desk. He could see several people staring at him, quite deservedly as he must have looked strange holding the child. They may have been at a hospital, so injury was to be expected, but the child’s striking appearance along with the strange way she had wrapped her wound in leaves, drew stares from a number of people. 

The nurse at the front desk gave him a strange smile when he and Laura approached her and her eyes immediately flew to the child wrapped in a soaking wet blanket in his arms. “So um…” Nathan began with uncertainty “My friends and I found this kid in the woods and she’s pretty messed up, uh…” The nurse gave him another smile and checked her computer again. 

“Alright, can I get a name for the patient” she said, nodding to the child in his arms.” 

“Uh, well..” began Nathan, ”I don’t know about her name, like I said we just found her in the woods, but I can tell you that my name is Nathan, Nathan Hart, and my friend here is Laura Nguyen.” 

The nurse nodded slowly, typing on her computer. “Alright and what seems to be the problem with her?” she said. 

Nathan glanced at Laura before turning back to the nurse. “I haven’t really examined her all too well…” he began. “Her leg has some sort of deep injury, and maybe a break,” interjected Laura. “She’s also got some smaller scratches and whatnot, but none of them seem too serious, the leg is the main thing.” Nathan turned to her, but she didn’t look at him. She would know better than him, after all she had been sitting in the back with the kid for all those hours. 

The nurse nodded again and continued typing on her computer. “It seems you and your friends have had quite the night,” she said. “Let’s take her to a room and get her checked out, then you can tell me your story.” She stood, said something to a nurse sitting beside her, and motioned for the two to follow her. 

As they began walking, Laura gave him a meaningful look, and made a vague gesture with her hands. Nathan only shrugged in confusion. Laura sighed. 

“Ma’am, we have a friend who’s parking the car, Alex. Will he be able to come up to the room?” Laura said. 

“Certainly,” the nurse said without turning around. 

Laura glared at Nathan who gave her an exasperated look. How could he have known she was talking about Alex, he couldn’t read minds. It didn’t even matter, if she had wanted to know it that badly she should have just asked the nurse herself. She hadn’t had any problem interrupting him earlier. 

They were led through several hallways which were thankfully less crowded than Nathan had anticipated. They may have been in a hospital, but he still felt weird carrying around a kid, especially one as weird looking as her. He didn’t like to stand out too much, and the unique state of the child drew a lot of stares from the few people who did pass them. 

Eventually, the nurse stopped in front of one of the doors and let them inside a brightly lit room with an examination table against the wall. She closed the door quietly, and indicated that they sit the child down on the table. 

“I can take it from here” she said, “I have someone outside who can take down your and the patient’s information while I conduct an examination.” Nathan nodded and gave one last look at the somehow still asleep child, before turning and following Laura out of the room. 

Standing outside the door was another nurse, an older woman probably in her fifties, holding a clipboard, standing beside a very wet Alex. When she saw them, she smiled and beckoned them over to her. 

“Hello,” she said, “and you two must be Nathan and Laura”. They nodded, and the old nurse gestured to Alex. “Your friend here was just telling us about you, now it seems you all have had a very eventful night.” They nodded again and the woman’s smile grew. Nathan, in turn, almost frowned at her. He had a gut feeling that the smile was fake, and as kind as the woman seemed, he still felt a slight sense of unease around her. 

Turning back to Nathan and Laura, she beckoned them closer to her and Alex, out of the way of anyone who may pass by. 

“Please,” she said “tell me about what exactly happened to you tonight.” 

They did so, Nathan giving his account first at the request of the nurse who had found out from Alex that he had been driving the car. He had just finished talking, and was about to move the conversation to Alex, when a high pitched shriek came from the door to the examination room.


	4. Suspicions

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The night continues and the gang begins to grow suspicious of certain hospital personnel.

The scream echoed through the enclosed space, and the four jumped out of their seats. Alex was the fastest, rushing to the door and flinging it open with Nathan and Laura quick on his heels. 

The shriek, it turned out, had come from a now awake child sitting on the examination table and looking up in terror at a very distressed nurse who was trying to take her blood pressure. Nathan and Alex moved to comfort the very frightened child, who was looking around the room in shock. 

The nurse it turned out, had needed to take the child’s blood pressure, and the feeling of the band tightening around her arm had apparently been enough to wake her. Luckily, she seemed to recognize the three who had found her, and in a few minutes had calmed down. 

Several times, the child had attempted to speak, though it had become apparent that she spoke some language the others had never heard before. Alex had turned to Laura and Nathan, the only multilingual ones out of them, but neither of them had heard anything like it before. The older nurse muttered something about a translator to the other nurse, and left the room. The child seemed to have come to the realization that none of them could understand her, and had ceased trying to communicate, now simply looking around the room with a mixture of fear and curiosity. 

The older nurse had returned shortly, with the news that she had requested a translator as soon as possible. She had requested that Laura and Alex join her back in the hallway to continue giving her their information, and they had obliged, leaving Nathan and the other nurse alone with the child. 

It had taken a good amount of coaxing, and demonstrating on Nathan, but they were eventually able to take the child’s blood pressure, pulse, and respiratory rate. It had been difficult, especially when the nurse had taken a blood sample, and the sight of the needle probably would have made the child run away had she not been injured. 

Laura and Alex soon finished with the older nurse, and a doctor was called in to examine the wound on the child's leg. The doctor had allowed him to stay close by as she examined the wound, though Nathan had looked away when she unwrapped it. He hated looking at injuries, and the sight of blood made him cringe. He heard the doctor’s hum of displeasure at the sight of the wound, as well as the child’s cry of pain as her wound was disinfected. She grabbed his hand, seemingly without realizing it, and he’d given it a reassuring squeeze as the doctor treated the wound. 

After the wound had been bandaged and a cast set around to heal the broken bone, the child was put in a wheelchair and taken to a hospital room with a bed. The younger nurse had taken the child into a side room to change her and had come back out smiling, a slightly surprised look on her face. 

“Well” she said, “As it turns out, our little friend here is in fact a boy”. She laughed softly at the shocked look on the faces of the others in the room. Nathan was certainly surprised. It wasn’t that he had never seen a guy with long hair, but a little kid? It was hard to tell anyway, with some little kids, and the frilly white pajamas hadn’t helped. 

She lay the child out on the bed and pulled the blanket over him. He began to chatter nervously in his language, seemingly forgetting that no one could understand him. The nurse only smiled and nodded as he pointed around the room at various devices. 

Nathan’s attention was drawn away from the child however, as the smiling older nurse called him, Laura and Alex out of the room. Her smile never wavered as she spoke to them. 

“We’re going to have to ask you to stay at the hospital tonight,” she said. 

“What” Alex nearly shouted, “Why do we have to stay here, we dropped the kid off and now he’s your problem, right! Isn’t that how it works?” 

“Lower your voice,” Laura hissed at him, “let’s hear her out”. 

The nurse paused for a moment before continuing. “Given the circumstances surrounding the finding of this child, we can’t exactly be sure that you three aren’t behind it. It’s certainly unlikely, however, until we can establish a connection with his family, or someone who can take care of him, we’re going to need you to stay here, or at least remain under police surveillance. It’s only until we can definitively say that you had nothing to do with this that we can release you. I do apologize.” She smiled sweetly. 

Nathan sighed. “Listen,” he said. “We’re planning to stay in my uncle’s cabin, it’s about an hour from here and I don’t know if there’s any way we could stay there or something?” 

The nurse was about to respond, but just then another nurse holding several papers approached her timidly and tapped her lightly on the shoulder. The older nurse turned to her, and the young nurse whispered something in her ear, all while looking nervously at Nathan and his friends. The smile on the old nurse’s face faltered slightly as she surveyed the papers, but never disappeared. 

The two murmured to each other for a while, too quietly for Nathan to hear anything. He could ask Alex later, he had excellent hearing from years of being a massive snoop.  
The two nurses seemed to finish their conversation, and with a strange look into the child’s room, the younger woman departed, leaving the group again alone with the older nurse. She turned back to them, her smile growing slightly wider, if that was possible. 

“I can show you where you’ll be staying now,” she said, “or we can wait until later. I’ll also need confirmation that you’re all adults, otherwise we’ll have to contact your legal guardians.”

The three looked at each other, seeming to come to a sort of unspoken agreement. They all knew they needed to talk, and it would be less conspicuous to do it somewhere private, like in a room. Maybe they could even get something to eat.

Nathan spoke up. “Why don’t we go up to where we stay now, I think we’re all pretty tired. Also yeah, we’re all eighteen, and we all should have the driver’s licenses to prove it, no need to call any parents.” He smiled wryly, and the nurse nodded. After a few minutes of checking their IDs and scribbling something on her clipboard, she beckoned for them to follow her. Nathan and Laura had wanted to check back with the kid one more time before going to bed, so Laura had dragged Alex back into the room, much to his chagrin. 

The child in question was sitting on the bed, wide awake and giggling at the young nurse from earlier who was making shadow puppets with the lamp. His ankle had been elevated with a pillow, and seemed not to bother him. He must be on painkillers. When he saw them he smiled and waved at them, speaking in his language. The three said their goodbyes, which the child didn’t seem to understand but giggled at anyway. Nathan was glad that he had gotten over some of the fear he had felt with them in the car and when he woke up. He hoped he slept well. 

They finished their goodnights, though they were not understood, and left with the older nurse. She led them down several long hallways and down a flight of stairs until they stopped in front of a cluster of doors at the end of a hallway. The nurse turned to them, pulling several small cards out of her pocket. 

“These are your rooms, we hope you find them comfortable.” Handing each of them one of the cards, she continued, “I’m sure you’re hungry. You can use these to eat for free in the cafeteria tonight. Just show them to the cashier and you’ll be good to go.” 

“What about our stuff?” said Nathan. The nurse looked rather surprised.  
“What about your stuff?” she repeated, her smile leaving her eyes a bit. 

“The stuff we brought with us. It’s our fall break so we were planning to spend the week in my uncle's cabin. All of our clothes and stuff are in the car, and I don’t think any of us wants to sleep in our wet clothes, or a hospital gown.” 

The woman’s smile grew again. “Of course, we’ll send someone right away.” 

Nathan sighed softly in relief. He hadn’t really doubted that she would say no to letting them get their stuff out of the car, but the nurse creeped him out. He couldn’t put his finger on it, but something about her was off. He’d have to discuss it later with Laura and Alex. 

The nurse called for something, and a few minutes later they were changing into fresh clothes in the rooms they had been provided. The nurse had popped in briefly after she was sure they had finished to tell them to buzz if they needed anything, before handing Laura a map of the hospital. “Can’t have you getting lost now can we,” she had said cheerily, before turning and walking with surprising swiftness down the hallway. 

The three stood looking after her for several moments without talking, Alex and Laura giving each other sideways glances, Nathan not missing how Laura slipped her hand into Alex’s. “Well,” said Nathan “You guys wanna head down to the cafeteria.”  
“Yeah man, I’m starving” replied Alex. Laura only rolled her eyes fondly and nodded. 

They started down the hallway, and after a brief incident where Alex had been convinced that Laura was holding the map upside-down and had gotten them very lost (“There’s no title and the labels are all weird, how was I supposed to know” he’d said) they found themselves standing in a brightly lit, and thankfully nearly empty, cafeteria. 

Nathan wasn’t very hungry, so he picked out a table in the back while Laura and Alex got something to eat. Laura hadn’t seemed terribly hungry either, and Nathan doubted that the sight of the bland looking hospital food had helped much either. She probably just wanted to be close to Alex. The two hadn’t been able to be together much during the night, and he knew that they loved being together, though Nathan couldn’t imagine why. They were polar opposites, and as much as Nathan loved, or at least tolerated his cousin, he didn’t really understand what Laura saw in him. 

He was forced to end his musings when the two returned, Alex carrying a tray of waffles worthy of the school cafeteria, and Laura, confirming his suspicions, holding only a granola bar. The two seated themselves across on the opposite side of the table, and Laura turned to face him. 

“Holy crap” was all Nathan could manage. Laura nodded. “Holy crap indeed” she replied. 

“So you guys wanna talk about what just happened,” began Nathan. “Cause I’m still not sure if i’m dreaming.” 

“You’re not dreaming Nathan,” Alex said. “If you are, that’s bad news for us.” Nathan managed a weak laugh at that remark, but it died quickly.

He sighed. “A lot’s happened,” he began. “And we have a lot to talk about.” The others nodded, though Laura looked puzzled. Nathan continued. “We don’t have the time to go back over everything we’ve been through tonight, so I’ll get to the point. That old nurse creeps me out, and I remember her talking to that other lady about something, though I couldn’t really hear what they were saying. Alex,” 

Alex’s head shot up from where he had begun digging into the tray of waffles “Yeah?” he responded, voice muffled by the huge amount of food he had managed to stuff into it. “What?” 

“Alex, do you remember when that old nurse was talking to us about the kid and was interrupted by that other nurse who looked really weirded out by something. Well, out of all of us you were standing the closest, and I was hoping you’d have heard something given your, well, excellent sense of hearing.” 

Alex’s face suddenly lit up and he hastily swallowed the mouthful of food. “I knew there was something I needed to tell you guys!” he nearly shouted, and Laura hastily grabbed his arm to shush him, looking around frantically. Nathan nodded at her, so they had the same idea. He turned to Alex. 

“Listen” he said quietly. Alex looked back at him, clearly confused. “I know what going on is pretty major and I’m sure we’d all like to be a lot louder, but I think,” Nathan turned to Laura. “And I’m pretty sure Laura has the same idea as me, but there’s a good chance we’re being watched.” Alex’s eyes widened, and he stared at Nathan as though he’d seen a ghost.

“Watched” he said in a hushed whisper, looking around as though someone might be standing over them right then, listening. Nathan nodded and continued. 

“Like I said earlier, that old nurse really creeped me out, and I can’t shake this bad feeling I had. Maybe I’m just paranoid, but I’d rather be safe than sorry. Just talk more quietly for a while, and try to keep your head down as much as you can, I don’t want to risk anything.” 

Alex nodded and glanced at Laura, a disturbed look on his face. “Yeah I kinda had that feeling too.” He looked around, seeming to make doubly sure they weren’t being watched before continuing, his voice low and his head much closer to theirs. “Listen, that lady was saying some really weird stuff about the blood tests they took on that kid, how they came back with really jacked up results or something. Now I don’t know what much of what they said means, but it was pretty freaky the way she said it.” 

Laura stared at him, eyes narrowing. “What exactly did she say about blood tests?” 

Alex looked between her and Nathan before responding. “She said they had failed to determine his blood type--that they couldn’t find a match.” 

Laura looked back at him, confused. “Is that all? I mean that’s pretty weird, but…”

Alex shook his head. “That’s not the weird part,” he said quietly, and Laura’s eyes widened. He looked around again, and leaned further in, voice growing softer, and forcing the other two to lean too. “The weird part, was that the younger nurse said that they had found traces of something in his blood, and that maybe it was what they had been talking about when they said to be on the lookout for strange injuries.’’

“Who’s they” asked Nathan, brow furrowing in contemplation. 

Alex only shook his head. “Don’t know, the two never said, but that old nurse with the big creepy smile had a weird look on her face when she said it, and I remember feeling really creeped out.” 

“They were pretty creepy,” Laura said, and Nathan saw a nervous look flit across her normally impassive face. She was now leaning so far forward that her forehead nearly touched his. “What did she say next?” 

“Nothing” Alex too leaned forward even further, and Nathan reflexively leaned backwards to avoid touching their forehead on accident. Neither of them seemed to notice, and Alex continued. 

“The old nurse told her to run the test again, and if they got the same results they could call them, that they'd know what to do with it.” 

The three sat in shock for several moments. Nathan was remarkably impressed by the memory of his cousin, though such cryptic details would be hard to forget. Laura, on the other hand, looked deeply worried. 

“That would sort of explain the weird feeling I got,” she began, and Nathan and Alex turned to face her, slightly surprised. She furtively glanced around them before continuing. “It started when that old, weird nurse told us we had to stay in the hospital because of something to do with evidence, but listen, my dad’s a prosecutor. He knows, and I know, that you can’t just keep someone in confinement when there isn’t any evidence to support them being guilty. Besides,” she narrowed her eyes. “Don’t you think it’s pretty weird that we haven’t seen any cops around here?.” 

Nathan and Alex shared a look, they hadn’t thought of that. Laura pursed her lips. “Think about how suspicious all of this really is. A bunch of teenagers show up to a hospital in the middle of the night with an injured little kid, claiming to have run over him while driving to a cabin in the middle of nowhere. Any normal hospital would have called the police, or child protective services, or something. And yet we haven’t seen one police officer or CPS agent. Just a creepy old nurse who asked us a few questions before telling us we aren’t allowed to leave the hospital. How sketchy is that!” 

Nathan and Alex shared a look, and Nathan nodded, deep in thought “Pretty sketchy”. 

Laura gave them a tight smile, and for several minutes no one spoke, all of them considering what had been said. Nathan was the first to speak up. 

“Listen, we’ve been through a lot, and we’ve talked about a lot, but it’s getting pretty late and I don’t want that old nurse to get any more suspicious of us.” He pushed his chair back. “I’m pretty tired and I’d like to head to bed.” 

Laura looked at Alex and his unfinished tray of food, nodding. “I’ll wait here with Alex while he finishes, you take the map and go ahead, I think I remember the way back.” 

“No” Alex stood. “I’m not too hungry anymore, let's go to bed and talk about all this more tomorrow.” 

Nathan nodded, and with one last look around the room, he followed Alex and Laura out the door.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yeah so I'm some student writing this in my spare time who knows nothing about hospital procedure and doesn't really want to have to research it, so pardon how grossly inaccurate this probably is. I googled hospital blueprints so that's something.


	5. Down the Rabbit Hole

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's a new day, and Nathan and his friends grow ever more suspicious of the hospital staff.

Nathan groaned as bright sunlight streamed in through the window of his hospital room. ‘At least the storm’s over,’ he thought as he groggily pushed aside the thin comforter and sat up. He glanced at the clock sitting beside his bed. 8:00, it read in blinking red text. He sighed in relief, glad that by some miracle he had managed not to oversleep. 

Yesterday, before they had disappeared into their rooms for the night to go to bed, they had agreed to meet up at 8:30 the next morning to check on the kid and each other. Alex had objected profusely, insisting that the long night that they had before warranted some extra time to sleep, but Laura had agreed with Nathan, saying that the kid would be nervous, and seeing even a somewhat familiar face would be comforting. Alex had been quick to agree after Laura had spoken up, and so the three had said their goodnights and gone to bed. 

And now it was morning. Looking down, Nathan realized that he was still wearing his clothes from the previous night, now severely wrinkled and a bit smelly. He’d have to rush to take a shower and change before he was supposed to meet his friends in the cafeteria. He sighed again, this time in annoyance. He should have set an alarm on his phone or something so he wouldn’t have to rush when he woke up, but he had been so tired. 

‘Besides’ he thought as he showered and dressed as quickly as possible. ‘Alex and Laura were probably still asleep, and it would probably be up to him to wake them up’. He pulled on a still damp pair of sneakers and grabbed his phone before leaving his room. 

To his surprise, Alex and Laura were standing in the hallway outside, talking softly to each other. When they heard the sound of his door shutting, they turned to greet him. “Mornin Nate.” Alex greeted him. Behind him, Laura rolled her eyes and smiled fondly. Nathan grinned awkwardly, confused. 

“Nate?” he said, “Why Nate all of a sudden.” 

“No reason, I just thought it was time I gave my favorite cousin a nickname”.

“Nathan’s too long for you to remember?”

“No, I just like Nate.”

“Fine” Nathan grinned, “I like Nate too.” 

“Is now really the time to be talking about this?” Laura sounded exasperated. “I’m starving, let’s go get some breakfast, and then we can talk about nicknames or whatever.” 

“You’re just jealous cause you don’t get a cool nickname too.”

“No, I’m just hungry. And you two aren’t taking this whole situation seriously enough”.

“Chill out babe, I’m sure everything will work out in the end.” Alex put an arm around her shoulders as the trio began walking towards the cafeteria. 

“Yeah,” agreed Laura, “It’s still freaky, though”. 

As the three rounded a corner they nearly collided with the young nurse from the night before. She looked flustered and exhausted, as though she hadn’t slept in a while. She gasped when she saw them. 

“Oh thank goodness you’re all up” she said panting, “I’m going to need you to come with me”. 

“What’s the matter?” replied Nathan. 

“It’s the kid. He woke up and he’s pretty freaked out, we were hoping that seeing you all would help him calm down.”

“Calm down, he seemed pretty calm when we left him last night.”

“Well, yes” the nurse pursed her lips, “He was calm last night, however that may have been helped by the painkillers administered to him for his injury. They have a tendency to… relax the patients.”

“So why can’t you just give him more painkillers or something to calm him down.”

“Well you see...we can’t...” the nurse looked even more nervous now, and she glanced around as though someone was standing nearby who could give her directions. “I’ll try to explain later, for now though I just need you to follow me”. 

Nathan turned to the others who nodded at him, and the three followed the nurse who was practically running. Laura looked disappointed. She’d have to wait for breakfast. 

As they continued their jog through the hospital, Nathan noticed that they were taking a different route than they had taken the night before. In fact, he realized with a start, they didn’t even seem to be in the same part of the hospital. 

She led them down several more hallways and down a flight of stairs until they came to a door at the end of one of the hallways. Nathan gave the nurse a pressing look to which she gave no response, only turning her attention to the door. She took a deep breath, and to the surprise of the three, took out a key and unlocked the door. 

The room inside was small, smaller than the original room had been. In one corner was a bed, against the headboard of which was curled a small, blond ball. The child trembled lightly, flinching as he heard them walk into the room. Wide, grey eyes peeked out at them from behind a thin comforter. When he saw the three he seemed to calm slightly, unraveling himself enough for them to see the rest of him. He said something in his strange language and looked at them expectantly. Nathan shook his head. 

“I can’t understand you” Nathan spoke softly, not wanting to frighten the boy, “I’m sorry, I don’t know what you’re saying”. 

The boy didn’t respond, only sighed looking down at his shaking hands, now clasped in his lap. 

Nathan walked over to the boy slowly, kneeling down in front of him. He realized, with a small start, that he hadn’t tried to learn the boy’s name. The previous night had been hectic, and he hadn’t wanted to interfere with the doctors, plus he had wanted to distance himself from the boy as much as possible so as not to incriminate himself if something sketchy was going on, but it still seemed wrong to have basically saved someone’s life and to not even know their name. 

Taking a deep breath, he pointed to his chest. “Nathan” he murmured. The boy looked confused before seeming to understand. He extended a small hand, pointing at Nathan. “Nae-tan” he whispered in response. Nathan nodded. 

“Right” he responded, “Nathan”. The boy smiled at him and pointed at himself. 

“Legolas” he said, tapping his chest lightly. 

“Legolas” Nathan nodded repeating the name to himself slowly. It was a strange name to be sure, though he supposed it was deserving of such a strange child. “Pretty name”. 

The two sat in silence for several moments before Legolas turned his attention to the others standing in the doorway. He pointed to them, speaking again in his language. Realizing that Nathan couldn’t understand him, he pointed again to Nathan. “Nae-tan” he said, before pointing to his friends and shrugging his shoulders. Realization dawned in Nathan’s brain as he understood what the boy wanted from him. 

He gestured to a rather confused Alex and an amused Laura. “Alex, Laura”. The nurse was standing back, not seeming to want acknowledgement. He didn’t know her name anyway, so passed her over in his introductions. This seemed to go unnoticed by the boy however, who smiled at each as they were introduced.  
The other two came over, and the three sat in a circle around and on the bed with Legolas as he attempted to perfect the pronunciation of each of their names. He was able to grasp it very quickly, and was nearly overcome by laughter when Alex pretended to be unable to pronounce his name, making wildly wrong guesses. The boy was much calmer now, and though his eyes still darted around from time to time, and though his hands still trembled lightly, he seemed much more at ease in the company of the three. 

With Legolas’ attention now firmly on Alex, Nathan let his eyes wander around the room. It was a small windowless room, almost definitely in some sort of basement area of the hospital. In fact, Nathan noted with growing unease, it didn’t seem to be a hospital room at all. It held a bed certainly, as well as a small table, but neither appeared to be proper hospital furnishings. The bed was metal framed and seemed rather frail, and the table had wheels indicating that it was some sort of cart being used as a table, rather than a real piece of furniture. The hospital equipment too was minimal, all of it able to be easily transported at a moment’s notice. It occurred to him that the room, had it not held a bed and a patient, would have been remarkably well suited to be a storage room.

He was brought out of his pondering by the sudden sharp click of the door opening. Into the room walked the older nurse from the night before, the young nurse following close behind. The older nurse was still wearing her old smile, though it seemed much more forced now. The young nurse was also smiling, though her eyes kept darting to the door nervously and Nathan noted that her forehead shone with sweat.

The older nurse approached them, stopping abruptly in front of the bed and nearly causing the young nurse to crash into her. “I’m afraid I’m going to have to ask you three to leave,” she said cheerily, “Our little friend needs rest to heal properly, and I’m sure you three are just itching to go enjoy some breakfast in the cafeteria.” 

Nathan looked at the others, a nervous expression on his face. Alex met his gaze for a moment before turning to the old nurse. “We’re not hungry,” Alex kept his voice low, not wanting to startle the still nervous child, “And I think he’s more comfortable with us.”

“Isn’t that why you called us here anyway?” interjected Laura, “to help calm him down?”

The old nurse’s smile tightened at Laura’s words. 

“Well no, it was actually our friend Maya who called you.” She turned her gaze to the young nurse beside her. The girl seemed to shrink under the intense smile the old nurse gave her. “Dear Maya gets flustered rather easily. It seems she couldn’t calm the child down when he awoke, and instead of calling me, or a trained member of staff, she called you three, hoping that a familiar face would be enough to calm the boy down.” 

Nathan felt himself tense at the surprisingly harsh tone of the cheerfully smiling old nurse, and a small whimper from the bed told him that Legolas felt the same way. 

“Just let us stay for a few more minutes,” Nathan begged, unwilling to leave the boy alone with the smiling nurse. 

“Ten minutes.” The nurse checked her watch. “Then meet me in the cafeteria, you three can get some breakfast and I can discuss your release from the hospital.” She turned to leave, the young nurse trailing behind her. 

Nathan gaped in surprise. “Release from the hospital, what does that mean?” 

“Ten minutes,” the nurse called to them as she left. Behind her, the younger nurse gave them one last, very strange look, before also disappearing into the hallway. 

Nathan turned back to the others who in turn stared at him. Beside them, Legolas trembled, small whimpers leaving him every so often. Alex gently reached to touch his shoulder, but the child flinched away and Alex withdrew his hand. Laura looked nervously at the boy, before turning back to Nathan. 

“Ten minutes,” she said. 

Ten minutes passed quickly and uneventfully. Legolas calmed down considerably, though like before his hands hadn’t lost their soft tremble. The young nurse came in after a while to tell them that the ten minutes had passed, and with reluctant goodbyes they left the room with her. She led them back up into the main hospital and into the cafeteria where she directed them to a table in the far corner where the old nurse sat. 

“That’s Nurse Cathy,” the nurse pointed at the old nurse sitting at the table. “After you get your food, go meet with her so you can talk about all that’s going on.” She gave them an awkward smile before nodding and walking away.  
The three looked at each other for several moments, Alex glancing at the old nurse, the woman currently occupied by a newspaper and a cup of coffee. Their silence was interrupted once again by Laura’s stomach growling loudly. Alex snickered, and Laura looked embarrassed. 

“Guess I lied about not being hungry, huh,” she grinned. “Let’s go get breakfast and get that nurse to tell us when we can leave.”

The other two nodded and several minutes later they were seated across from the old nurse who had since put down her newspaper and was regarding the three with a cheerful expression. Alex and Laura had begun eating, but Nathan found that his appetite had vanished. After several attempts to eat the bland hospital food in front of him, he put down his fork, looking up at the nurse. 

“Back in the kids room, you said that we could leave the hospital soon,” he said. The other two looked up from their food to glance at him in surprise. The nurse put down her coffee and gave him a smile. 

“That’s correct,” she said. 

“So did you find that kid’s parents or something?”

“We have contacted his guardian, yes, an uncle who lives a few miles north of here. We’re still not quite sure how our little friend got so lost, but we can be sure that he’ll be well taken care of.”

“Already? It hasn’t even been a day and you’ve already found his uncle.” 

“We got lucky, his uncle works for the police and recognized the description of the boy when we sent out messages to local police stations to try to find someone who knew who he was.”

“So we can leave? Just like that?”

“Pretty much.”  
The nurse took a sip of her coffee. “We have no reason to believe that any of you are responsible for the situation. Unless of course, there’s something you’d like to confess.”

Nathan shook his head, the others doing the same. 

“Excellent.” 

She took another sip of coffee. “It’s about 10 am now, we’ll try to see you three out by 12, then you can get back to enjoying your fall break.”

“And that’s really it?” Laura suddenly spoke up. “You’re not keeping us any longer to interrogate us or anything? I mean, for the love of God, we found a kid in the woods and that’s it, we can just leave?” 

The old nurse raised an eyebrow. “Surely you three don’t want to be interrogated, do you?” 

They shook their heads.

“Good.” 

The old nurse gathered her newspaper and rose to her feet. “I’ll leave you three to finish breakfast. When you’re done, you can relax in your rooms until 12, and then when it’s time for you to leave I’ll come get you.” With one final smile she left them alone, seeming to disappear among the people milling about the cafeteria. 

Nathan stared down at his food, any appetite he may have had thoroughly vanished. That woman made him uneasy, and their being released so early only made him more suspicious. 

Laura spoke first, looking up from where she stared down at her scrambled eggs, an unreadable look on her face. “That was unexpected,” she said. 

“Yeah” replied Alex. “I’m glad we’re cleared though, I was worried for a minute there that we might be seriously interrogated or something.”

Nathan shook his head. “It’s good we’re not suspicious or anything, but I still feel weird about all this.” He leaned in, the others following suit. “Look,” he said “I don’t feel super comfortable talking here with all of these people around. Let’s go back to my room, we can talk there.” 

Laura gave him a strange look, though the two agreed and several minutes later they were seated in a circle on the tile floor of Nathan’s room. “So,” he began, “Now that we’re in what I hope is a secure location, let’s talk about how weird this is that we’re being released already.”

“Yeah,” Alex nodded, “At least we can leave though.”

“What do mean Alex?” Nathan exclaimed. “Just last night you were talking about how sketchy all of this is and now you’re just ready to leave? You aren’t even a little bit suspicious!”

“Of course we’re suspicious!” Laura interjected, grabbing Alex’s hand, “That’s why we want to get as far away from this case as possible. It’s really, really sketchy, I know, and I doubt we’re getting the truth about a lot of things, but we have to look out for ourselves too, Nate! And I’m not gonna go playing Nancy Drew when it could end badly, and snooping in stuff like this will end badly.” 

“How can you say that! After everything we overheard about the blood tests, us being kept here possibly illegally, finding a damn kid in the middle of the road! Not to mention Nurse Cathy or whoever she was being creepy as hell last night and this morning, how can you...”

“That’s what Laura is saying,” Alex interrupted, squeezing Laura’s hand. “This is pretty weird, and that’s why we need to get as far away from this as possible.” 

He gave Nathan a small smile. “And hey, maybe that nurse is just one of those people who’re naturally creepy and all of this is just one big understanding. Maybe the stuff they were talking about with the blood tests and stuff was some kinda radiation or something and they wanted to keep us here to make sure we didn’t die, and they didn’t tell us ‘cause they didn’t want us to freak out.”

“And the kid was in that room in the basement area because they didn’t want anyone else to be exposed to the radiation.” Laura nodded thoughtfully. 

Nathan shook his head, “If it was radiation or something like that they would have done tests on us to make sure nothing was wrong and they certainly wouldn’t have let us be in crowded areas like the cafeteria if they thought that there was some sort of radiation on us.” 

Laura started to respond, but was cut short by a soft, rapid knocking on the door. The three looked at each other, unsure if they had really heard it, but it sounded again and Alex and Laura looked at Nathan. Nathan sighed and got up, cracking the door open, surprised at who stood behind it. The young nurse from earlier looked at him nervously, hands clasped in front of her. 

“May I come in?” she said in a voice that was little more than a whisper. Nathan nodded and opened the door. The nurse shuffled in, glancing between the three of them. She flinched when he shut the door, standing awkwardly in the middle of the room. The other two stood when she entered the room, disturbed by her nervous expression. 

“So what is it, what’s up” Nathan approached her slowly, not wanting to scare her. 

She took a deep breath, glancing once more around the room before speaking. “It should be safe to talk here, I’m sure this room isn’t bugged.”

“Bugged” Alex repeated, eyes bulging, “What do you mean bugged, are there people spying on us.”

“Maybe” the nurse pursed her lips, “That’s what I was worried about, but I’m sure there aren’t any bugs in this room though so it should be safe to talk here.”

“Back up” said Nathan, “There might be people spying on us and they might have bugged our room. What the hell is going on here.”

“I’ll explain everything but I need to be quick” she sighed deeply and continued, “It’s about the kid, I think he's in danger.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Whew, longest chapter so far. That took me a hot second to write but I hope it was worth it.


	6. Behind the Curtain

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> We see Legolas' perspective on the morning's events, and strife arises between Nathan and his friends as a new ally reveals the truth of what's been happening at the hospital.

“What do you mean in trouble?” Nathan shot back. “Ma’am, what exactly is going on?” 

“Sit down, and you can just call me Maya.” 

Maya motioned to the floor, following Nathan to where the others had, once again, taken their seats. She sat down, taking another deep breath. 

“Where to start, where to start,” she murmured to herself. “Like I said, the kid is in danger. That other nurse, Nurse Cathy, she’s working with some… shady people. People who want to take him away to some sort of research facility.” 

“Research facility! Why?”

“That’s complicated, but let me give you at least a little bit of context. See, about two days ago some people from the government contacted the hospital asking us to keep our eyes open for strange injuries, especially injuries related to a complicated scientific term that I can’t remember. Apparently, they had picked up some rather unusual energy signatures a few miles away from here and they wanted to know if anyone had been affected by them. At least, that’s what Cathy told me.” 

She paused to glance at the door before continuing. “Anyway, when we did blood tests on the kid we got some pretty weird results. For one thing, his blood type doesn’t match any other blood type. In fact, if I hadn’t seen him I wouldn’t have thought that the blood even belonged to a human. It seemed to glitter a little under direct light. Also, it apparently had traces of whatever the government had asked us to keep an eye out for.”

She gave another glance at the door before leaning in. “What really set Cathy off, though, happened early this morning. That’s when she contacted the government.”

“What happened?” Alex leaned in. 

“She was about to tell us,” Laura nudged him, giving him an exasperated look. 

Nathan rolled his eyes and Maya continued. “So yes, this morning we were changing his bandages and well, put simply, he’s healed way, way more than he should have in the time he’s been here. She decided to take another blood test, along with a tissue sample and basically, whether he’s human is debatable. That’s when she called the government. She gave him a description of the kid and they told her to keep him here until they can take him to a research facility.” 

“Is that why Nurse Cathy released us so early?” Laura’s eyes narrowed in contemplation. “And why she was so upset that you had called us into his room this morning?” 

“Yes,” Maya nodded. “She doesn’t want anyone to interfere. She wants you three gone as soon as possible so she can deal with the kid on her own.” 

“She’s creepy,” Alex frowned, “Is she always smiling like that? I mean, she isn’t fooling anyone, we can tell it’s fake.”

“No, only around patients and people who aren’t staff. She’s actually quite cold most of the time.” Maya sighed. “Look, don’t get the wrong idea, It’s not as though she’s necessarily a bad person, she’s just old, and old people can be passive aggressive and rude. She just wants things to be normal, and the kid’s pretty much the opposite of that.”

“That’s great and all,” Nathan chimed in, “But I don’t get why you’re telling us this. Nurse Cathy couldn’t have let you talk to us, so why are you involving us in this?”

“Because I have a really bad feeling.” She pursed her lips. “I can’t explain it, but I feel like what Cathy and the others are doing is very, very wrong.”

“We had the same feeling,” Laura nodded. “Not as strong as yours I guess, but we figured that something was up, that there was something people were hiding.” She looked around the circle at each of them. “I guess we were right, huh?”

“I’m still not sure we should be jumping to conclusions,” Alex said, a frown on his face. “I respect gut feelings and all, and what you told us about the kid is pretty weird, but it doesn’t seem like Cathy’s reaction is weird.” 

“I kinda agree.” Laura grabbed Alex’s hand. “It was sketchy before when she wanted us gone, and when she was trying to isolate the kid in some basement level of the hospital and we didn’t know why, but now we do. We know why she did it, and quite frankly, I don’t think she’s wrong.”

“What do you mean you don’t think she’s wrong!” Nathan exclaimed, his eyes narrowing in frustration. “They want to take the kid to a “research facility” for crying out loud. That seriously doesn’t raise any red flags for you?”

“This isn’t a movie Nathan,” Laura snapped back, “We aren’t super heroes. My best guess is that it’s exactly what it sounds like, somewhere they can keep Legolas to figure out where all the weird energy is coming from. Yeah it’s… not what we’re used to, but it’s not that weird.”

“Please.” Maya spoke again, her voice nearly a whisper, “I know you want to stay out of this, but I have a terrible feeling that the child is in a lot of danger. I don’t know how I know this but, those people from the government are dangerous. I think they’re going to try to hurt him.”

“And why would you think that?”

“As I said, it’s just a feeling.”

“And why should we trust a hunch?”

“Because my hunches have saved my life, multiple times.”

They fell silent, all contemplating what she’d just said. Laura looked back up at the young nurse, her gaze softening. 

“What do you mean, they saved your life?”

Maya took a deep breath and glanced at the door. “There isn’t a lot of time, but I can tell you won’t trust me without proof. It hasn’t happened very often, but when it has it’s been remarkably accurate. Basically, one time when I was a kid I had a really bad feeling about a fair we were planning to attend that day, I even pretended to be sick so that we wouldn’t have to go. That day a shooter opened fire at the fair and killed 17 people.” 

The three gasped but the nurse continued. “Another time in college, I had a terribly ominous feeling about going back to my dorm room so I spent the night with a friend. In the morning, I found out that my roommate had been murdered by an ex-boyfriend who would have killed me too if I had been there. I know I can’t prove any of this but you have to take my word for it, so please. Please help me save that child.” 

The three were silent for several moments, thinking. Out of the corner of his eye Nathan saw Laura give the nurse an incredulous look and a small eye roll. 

Nathan cleared his throat, drawing the others’ attention before speaking up. “Look, I believe you. Clearly whatever you’ve been feeling is… worth taking into account, at the very least, and if you’re feeling the same things about the kid then I think we should trust that.” He turned to the others. “But I’m not who you have to convince.”

Alex looked at the nurse, a shocked expression on his face. “Look I believe you,” he said, “That sounds… super crazy but,” he took a deep breath, “I believe you.”

“And why do you believe her?” Laura demanded, looking up at him, “Because she told us that she has some sort of esp power that lets her know when shit’s about to go down. Seriously, listen to her, she’s definitely making it up, she’s putting us in danger, she’s..”

“What reason does Maya have to lie to us?” Nathan glared at Laura. “She’s putting herself in danger too. Nurse Cathy clearly doesn’t want us to know about this. What does she have to gain? Even if she is lying about having a bad feeling, I’m not. I agree with her and so does Alex. You’re outnumbered.”

“And why shouldn’t I tell Cathy you’re all planning to attempt some rescue mission that technically speaking, is kidnapping?”

“You won’t. I can see it in your eyes, you know we’re right. You’re scared is all, you know we’re in danger and you want to avoid that. I understand, but someone else is in danger too, someone a lot more vulnerable that we are. So please Laura, just help us do this, do what you know is right.”

Laura sighed, looking at the ground. “How would we even do it, get Legolas out I mean? He’s in the basement, and I’m sure that this place has security cameras.”

“Legolas?” Maya raised an eyebrow.

“His name, the kid’s name is Legolas, he told us while we were in the room.”

“I see,” The nurse spoke slowly, glancing at each of them. “Look I have a plan. An extremely risky plan, I’ll be honest, but I think it might be our only chance of getting Legolas out of here. I need all of you to be in it completely, are you?”

They looked at each other. Nathan nodded. “I’m in.”

“So am I,” Alex said. 

Laura sighed, closing her eyes briefly before looking at Maya. “I'm in,” she said.

“Good” Nathan looked back at Maya, “So what’s the plan?”

\--------------------------------------------

A soft beeping sound filled the room as Legolas’ eyes slowly blinked open. He turned over with a sigh, drawing the blankets closer around himself, unwilling to wake. ‘What a strange bird,’ he thought, ‘To make such an obnoxious sound.’ As he turned, his eyes came to rest on the tan brick of the wall. ‘Strange,’ he thought. He hadn’t remembered his bedroom having walls like that. He gasped, eyes flying open as memories from the past nights came flooding back to him. He sat up with a start, looking frantically around the room. 

It was small, with no windows, and a door at the far end of the wall to his right. It was lit, well but not brightly, by a set of long, cold lamps that seemed to be part of the ceiling. He was lying on a small bed pushed against one of the walls and covered with a thin blanket. His nightclothes had been replaced by a white dress patterned with small flowers that was made out of some strange, stiff material. 

The beeping sound was still present, and after some looking around he was able to trace it back to a strange, thin box that sat upon a cart beside the bed. On it were strange moving symbols, and lines that seemed to form a set of flashing mountains that moved across the screen in tandem with the beeping. A long cord trailed down from it and connected to something wrapped around his wrist. 

He tugged on it, pulling it loose from his arm, a task surprisingly easy for him, even in a weakened state. Immediately the beeping noise was replaced with a sharp, flat tone that made him wince. The lines on the box had gone flat and some of the symbols were flashing. He hit the box, attempting to stop the noise, but only succeeded in knocking the box over. He was preparing for another hit when the door to the room flew open and several people rushed in. 

He vaguely recognized one of the people as being the woman who had been with him the night before. She rushed to his side, speaking to him gently in a strange language while one of the other people propped the box up and connected the cord back to his wrist. He went to disconnect it, but the woman blocked his hands, giving his wrist an awkward pat. She stayed beside him as the other nurse pushed back the blanket to examine his ankle. It had been bandaged, no it had been bandaged the night before, he remembered that at least, though the memories of the night before were fuzzy at best. If he had received medical attention then he must be among healers, human healers, but healers nonetheless. Perhaps they could help him return home. 

The woman said something to him, a question by her tone. She sighed when he gave her a blank look in return. She said something to the other woman who gave her a hasty reply and disappeared from the room, returning a few moments later with another woman. The woman was much older than the other two and wore a small, forced smile that made her features appear tight and angular, especially in the lighting of the room. 

The old woman spoke to the others and they immediately stood. The woman beside him gave him one last smile before following the other two out of the room. This left him alone and quite confused.

He sat in bed for several more moments, contemplating the strange people. They must have been healers of some sort to have been checking his bandage. That aside, he couldn’t shake a strange feeling in the pit of his stomach. The room he was in had no windows and thick stone walls; it felt more like a prison cell than a chamber of healing.

The lack of sunlight was beginning to wear on him. He lay back down, thinking. The woman had seemed kind, she had not hurt him at least, and his wound had been treated by a practiced healer, but he was still in a very strange place. That woman may have seemed kind, but the other woman, the sharp woman at the door had not. She had seemed almost angry, and she had removed the healers from the room so quickly, almost harshly. It seemed as though she did not trust him. 

The room wasn’t dimly lit, but as he sat on the bed, shadows seemed to dance on the walls and the room seemed to darken. Perhaps it was merely a figment of his imagination, a byproduct of the growing dread in the pit of his stomach. At last he could take it no more and began to ease his way out of bed. He was shaking as he slowly made his way towards the door. This would be his test, the test to confirm or deny the dread. The doors of the chambers of healing in Mirkwood were never locked, at least not from the outside, and should his door be locked, his suspicions that he could be some sort of prisoner would most likely be true. After what felt like ages, he finally reached the door and laid a trembling hand on the handle, pushing down and forward as he had seen the women do. It did not budge. He pulled it, but still nothing. The handle would barely move, and the door certainly did not. His attempts grew more and more furious as he desperately tried to open the door. The shadows on the wall seemed to grow, and the beeping from the machine was nearly deafening. He couldn’t take it anymore and with a final desperate pull on the door he screamed. 

A loud whine filled the air once again as he felt the cord connected to his wrist coming loose, the box turned over from the cord being pulled too far. He pounded on the door for several moments before it flew open, casting him roughly onto the floor. He scrambled backwards as the sharp faced woman marched into the room, the other woman from before trailing behind. He screamed again as the sharp faced woman grabbed his shoulders and pulled him back onto the bed, grabbing his ankle to examine it. He tried to yank it away, but stopped when she gave him a sharp glare. The other woman had already run out of the room. 

He shook while the sharp faced woman examined his ankle, flinching slightly when she tugged on the bandages. She let out a sharp exhale of breath before abruptly rising from the bed and marching out the door, shutting it firmly behind her. Legolas curled up into a trembling ball on the bed. He wanted his father, he wanted to go home. 

His self-pity party was interrupted by the sound of the door opening once again. He peeked out to see the other woman accompanied by three other people, two men and a woman. 

The man in front had light brown skin and dark grey eyes that stared at him with no small amount of confusion and alarm, his gaze occasionally turning to the others who returned the look. The other man was taller, broader, with curly blond hair cut quite short, even shorter than the other men he had seen in this strange place who also possessed very short hair. The only men he had ever seen were from Laketown, and they all wore their hair at least to their shoulders. The woman was quite a bit smaller than the two, though still taller than many of the women he had seen in Laketown. He thought that she, with her smooth black hair and almond shaped eyes, most resembled the elves he knew from Imladris, namely Elrond and his family, though her hair, like her companions, was cut far shorter than any elves’. 

He uncurled slightly from his ball as he recognized them; his saviors from the night before. He brushed some of his hair out of his face before speaking in a trembling voice. 

“Hello” he said, softly, “Please, um… can you tell me where I am.”

The grey-eyed man gave a small smile, shrugging his shoulders and saying something back to him in that strange language he didn’t understand. Legolas looked down at his hands, trying to stop them from trembling. He had doubted that they would understand him, but he had at least had hope. Now his fears were confirmed, and the idea of being in a strange place where no one could understand him was terrifying. 

When he looked up again, the grey-eyed man had knelt beside the bed and was looking up at him. The man put his hand over his chest and tapped it. “Nathan,” he said in a soft voice. 

After a moment Legolas understood. His name, that was his name. It was strange, but he tried to repeat it as best as he could, but judging from the man’s amused expression he hadn’t said it quite right. He only smiled and repeated his name, looking at Legolas expectantly. 

Legolas smiled at him, tapping his own chest and giving his own name which the man repeated, almost perfectly too which only embarrassed Legolas all the more that he hadn’t been able to say the man’s, well Nathan’s, name right. 

He looked at the other two, still standing by the door with the other woman. He didn’t know their names yet. He pointed them out to Nathan who smiled and turned to them. “Alex,” he said pointing at the blond man, “Laura” he pointed to the dark haired woman. He didn’t introduce the other woman, and Legolas guessed that he must not know her well. 

Alex and Laura came over to the bed, and the three helped Legolas with the pronunciation of their names. Alex pretended to be unable to pronounce his name, his guesses growing wilder with each try, and Laura laughed along with Legolas at the absurdity of it. The three seemed safe, or at least kind and Legolas felt better in their company. He was still nervous, but the initial shock and fear had worn off. Now he could think properly. Speaking of thinking, Nathan seemed to be deep in thought about something as he gazed around the room. A strange expression had passed over his face as though he was contemplating something and it made Legolas a bit uneasy. 

The four started when they heard the door click open and the sharp faced woman from earlier walked in. Her cold expression was gone, replaced by a wide smile that didn’t quite seem to reach her eyes. He recoiled slightly, remembering how she had treated him earlier. The other three seemed to share his distrust, if to a lesser degree, and he could see Nathan visibly tense as she approached them. Legolas also noted her appearance to be almost frantic and nervous as her forehead glistened with sweat and her finger tapped against her thigh as though in an attempt to calm herself. 

She spoke with the three for several minutes while Legolas watched, unable to understand a word of it. They seemed to be arguing, and he noted that her smile, once so wide, had shrunk slightly and she seemed rather annoyed. She had addressed the other woman during the conversation, and the woman had looked as though she wanted to run away. They seemed to settle the argument, and the two women left. 

The three turned back to him with worried expressions, making him flinch slightly. Alex gently took his hand, stroking it in an effort to calm him as Laura and Nathan shared a look. They spoke to him for several minutes in their language, which while he didn’t understand it, did a good deal in helping him calm himself. Eventually, the sharp faced woman reentered the room and the three stood. The three took turns, speaking short words to him in their language, and Alex patted him softly on the head. He realized with a start that they were saying goodbye as they were turning to leave, and called out a hurried goodbye after them. The door shut, leaving him alone once again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well now we know Legolas' side of the story. I hope people are enjoying this and I hope to have more up soon. Until then, take care.


	7. Escape

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Maya's plan is set into motion.

Nathan took a deep breath, readying himself for what was likely to be the most perilous afternoon of his life. Or maybe he was just being dramatic and he needed to calm down, he really did need to calm down. Maybe it was just that the idea of being caught stealing a patient from a hospital, especially a patient as strange as Legolas, and especially by someone as frightening as Nurse Cathy made his stomach do flip-flops. 

Maya had assured him that it would be ok, that everything was planned out and that it should all go smoothly. Then again, he had his doubts about any plan constructed in forty five minutes by a bunch of kids whispering in a hotel room. And it had originally been Maya’s idea to wheel him away in a laundry basket. Thank God they had convinced her that her plan would only be more trouble than it was worth. 

He sighed. All that was left to do now was wait; he checked the clock in his room for what felt like the hundredth time. 12:55, in three minutes the fire alarm would go off and he could finally leave his room. Until then, it was imperative that he, Laura, and Alex stay put so as not to arouse suspicion on any security cameras. Maya had assured them that she could take care of most of the action, and as a member of staff she wouldn’t arouse suspicion if she was wandering around. 

12:57, one minute. He took another breath, forcing himself to calm down. Suddenly, a horrible ringing, screeching sound filled the room. He flinched hard and ran to the door. That was the fire alarm, alright. Across the hall, he saw Alex and Laura walking towards him. 

“Ready,” Alex winked at him. 

Nathan groaned. “Ready as I’ll ever be.”

Laura gave him a hard smile. “Good luck,” she said. 

“Thanks.” He gave a forced grin, “I’ll need it.”

They parted ways and Nathan continued walking as fast as he could to the meeting place, the alarm blaring in his ears. He was lucky that in the rush for everyone to get out, no one noticed him. After a little bit of searching, he finally found the bathroom where Maya had told him to go. It was a woman’s bathroom, but in the commotion no one saw him slip in. It was thankfully empty, and he backed himself into one of the stalls while he waited for the two to arrive. 

A few moments later the door flew open and Nathan nearly leapt out of his hiding spot. He caught himself, and was thankful for it as a large head of thick red hair came into view, certainly not Maya’s or Legolas’. He heard her mutter, “To hell with fire, It’s been an hour since my last break and I’m gonna pee if it kills me.” And the stall next to him slammed shut. 

Nathan heard the door open again and what sounded like two people trying to be very quiet echoed across the room. He slowly opened the door, desperately hoping it wouldn’t creak. It didn’t matter even if it did, the woman in the stall next to him was muttering so loudly that he doubted she would hear him. 

He crept out of the stall and sure enough, Maya stood in the doorway, looking nervous. Legolas was beside her, face scrunched as though in pain, hands covering both ears. Nathan cringed. The fire alarm really was awful. Maya smiled when she saw Nathan and made to greet him, but he pressed his finger to his lips, pointing urgently to the stall behind him. Maya tilted her head for a moment before her eyes flew open and a panicked look fell across her face. Nathan nodded and the two sprang into action. 

They needed to hurry. The woman would probably be out of the stall soon. Maya was standing beside Legolas, gesturing to the suitcase. When he gave her a confused look she tried to mime curling up and lying down while pointing again at the suitcase. Legolas looked nervous. She tried again, but he didn’t seem to understand. 

They heard the toilet flush; the woman would be out in moments. Maya looked panicked, continuing her fruitless efforts to mime what she wanted Legolas to do. Nathan sighed and walked over, picked Legolas up, and laid him in the suitcase. Legolas looked utterly shocked and made to sit up, but Nathan had already closed the top of the suitcase and partially zipped it up. Maya seemed as surprised as Legolas and tried to grab at Nathan but he swatted her away. It was a bit harsh but there wasn’t time. 

He heard the stall door open. Giving Maya one last, very hard look, he turned to the door and slipped out into the crowd of people leaving the building. A few moments later a flustered Maya exited the bathroom, pulling a suitcase behind her. She gave him a wry look and handed him the suitcase. 

“Try not to jostle him too much,” she said and a moment later she was gone. 

Nathan sighed before turning to follow the crowd down the hallway. The suitcase was surprisingly light considering that an entire person was inside of it, though given everything they knew about Legolas, well, being lightweight wasn’t the strangest thing about him.   
He did his best to weave between the people flooding the hallway, going as fast as he possibly could. This was a hospital and it wouldn’t be long before the staff realized that all of this was a false alarm. For the plan to work he needed to get outside before then. A large part of him felt extremely guilty for pulling a fire alarm in a hospital. He had been opposed to the idea, as had Alex and Laura, but they couldn’t think of another way that they could have prepared in the amount of time they were given. 

No, he couldn’t think about that. There would be time for feeling bad later, now he just needed to get out of the hospital. 

And then he got to the stairs. 

He hadn’t considered the stairs, and apparently neither had Maya or the other two. The elevators weren’t an option, there was a fire after all, but he really didn’t want to take Legolas down the stairs. He sighed, it couldn’t be helped. He only hoped that Legolas was truly as light as he seemed. Glancing around to be sure no one was looking at him, he leaned down to look through the crack Maya had left to see two wide eyes staring back at him. He gave a small smile. 

“Sorry about this buddy,” Nathan said, “It might get a little bumpy.”

With that, he hefted the suitcase onto his shoulder and began his way down the stairs. It earned him a few strange looks from the other people rushing down the stairs, but most were too focused on leaving to give him more than a passing glance. Several times he nearly dropped the suitcase. The suitcase may not have been heavy (It really was disturbingly light), but it was bulky. It was Nathan’s largest suitcase, the one he used for his long trips. He could fit most of his wardrobe in it, and then some. It was a great suitcase, but definitely not designed to be filled with a kid and carried by hand. 

He finally reached the bottom of the stairs and was able to put the suitcase down, taking care not to simply drop Legolas. He rushed out of the stairwell and into the crowd flowing towards the front entrance. 

From there it was easy. He simply had to follow the crowd through the hallway and then he was outside, autumn sunlight hitting his face. He wheeled the suitcase around to the left in the direction of one of the decorative trees where they had agreed to meet later. He wheeled around for a few minutes before finally spotting his friends standing together, looking worried. He waved to them and they waved back, looking immensely relieved. He hurried over to them, flinching as the suitcase hit a particularly sharp bump on the pavement. 

“Nathan, oh, thank God. You got out in time.” Laura looked so relieved Nathan worried she might collapse. 

Alex clapped him hard on the back. “You did it buddy, it took a while, but you did it.”

“It was more crowded than we thought it would be,” Nathan retorted. Then lowering his voice added, “I guess we should have known that pulling a fire alarm in a hospital would cause some panic.”

“I still hate that we had to do that,” Laura frowned, “I know we really had to get the kid out, but surely there had to have been another way. What if someone was in surgery!” 

“Yeah I know.” Nathan nodded, “But we didn’t have a lot of time to get him out. Besides, it isn’t every day you have to rescue a child from a hospital that’s holding him against his will and is planning to send him to a shady government facility.”

Laura rolled her eyes and muttered something under her breath. Nathan managed to catch ‘crazy conspiracy theorist’ but he didn’t say anything. 

“Besides,” Alex chimed in, “It is a hospital, they’re going to investigate the possibility of fire as soon as possible to keep everyone safe, no harm done. And hey,” he put his hand on Laura’s shoulder, “It was Maya’s idea to pull the fire alarm, and she works at the hospital. She wouldn’t ask us to do something that actually put people in danger.” 

“You know how I feel about Maya,” Laura bit her lip, “But yeah, I guess she wouldn’t do something to put patients in serious danger.” 

No one spoke for several moments after that, all of them nodding silently but unwilling to carry on the conversation. No matter how they tried to convince themselves otherwise, they had their doubts about the plan. It was important to get Legolas out, sure, but still...

“When should I take Legolas out to the car?” Nathan said, interrupting the moment of silence. 

Alex’s eyes widened. “Oh crap, he’s still in there, isn’t he.”

“You could probably take him now.” Laura looked around at the people surrounding them. “I’m not sure what you were waiting for.”

“Yeah, I didn’t know if I should, I figured it would look suspicious if I went straight to the car. This way people probably just assumed that I brought the suitcase out anyway cause I didn’t want to risk anything being burned in case there actually was a fire.” 

“Go ahead now,” Alex said, glancing at the suitcase, “I don’t wanna keep the little guy zipped up in there any longer than we have to.”

“Alright,” agreed Nathan, and after a minute of Alex trying to give him directions to the car (He was extremely bad at it, and it wasn’t as though he was giving him directions to El Dorado), he was off. 

The car was parked under a large tree in the back of the parking lot, which, had the circumstances been different, he might have stopped to admire. It was beautiful in the fall sunlight, which fell in across the red-orange leaves in a way that made it seem to glow. A light breeze rippled through it as Nathan approached, casting a light shadow on the wall behind it. 

Unfortunately, the circumstances were not different and Nathan barely noticed it as he wheeled Legolas to the car. He unlocked the car and began opening the trunk before shaking his head and closing it. He didn’t want Legolas locked up in the trunk of the car, but on the other hand it would seem weird for him to put a big suitcase in the back seat of a car shared with two other people. Well there was nothing to be done about that, and he didn’t want Legolas cramped up any longer than he had to be. He only hoped that Maya meant it when she said that she would have them covered when it came to surveillance cameras. 

Taking care not to jostle the suitcase too much, he lifted it into the backseat of the car and turned it to lay sideways on the seat. Unzipping it revealed a small, quivering form tucked into a curled position in the suitcase. Nathan was instantly flooded with guilt. He couldn’t imagine how terrifying it must have been to have been stuffed into a bag by strangers and jostled around for the better part of twenty minutes. 

“Sorry kid,” Nathan grimaced, “It was for the best.” 

Legolas seemed to uncurl a bit at his voice and turned slightly to look at him. The hurt in Legolas’ face made Nathan feel even worse. 

“Agh, Legolas, I’m so sorry, it really was to keep you safe, I promise.”

Legolas was silent, still giving him an accusing look.”

Nathan sighed, at a loss for words. Legolas had begun to climb out of the suitcase and look around the car, running his hand over the cloth of the seats. He couldn’t be out of the suitcase for too long, the car didn’t have very dark windows. 

“Look,” Nathan said after a moment, “I’m gonna have to go in a sec, you need to stay here, understand. You need to get back in the suitcase, I’m sorry.” 

Legolas only looked at him blankly. 

“In the suitcase.” Nathan pointed to the suitcase and mimed shutting it. Legolas’ eyes narrowed and he shook his head vigorously. 

“Ok then,” Nathan looked around. He spotted a blanket draped over one of the seats, and grabbing it held it out to Legolas. “Cover yourself with this.”

Legolas seemed to understand and taking the blanket, he wrapped it around himself so that only his face could be seen. 

“Good,” said Nathan. He motioned with his hand for Legolas to get down. Legolas complied, curling up in the suitcase, though looking at Nathan as if not trusting him not to close it. Nathan backed out of the car with his hands up, trying to reassure him. He looked around the parking lot. Still empty, good. 

“Stay down, alright, can you do that?” Nathan once again gestured for him to stay down. Legolas seemed to realise that it was a question and after a little consideration he nodded. “Good, I need to leave now,” Nathan pointed to himself and then back to the parking lot, “I’ll be back,” He pointed back to the car, “Soon,” he finished lamely, unable to think of any way to indicate time. He gave Legolas a small smile. After a moment Legolas returned it and nodded, pulling the blanket over him to hide his face. Nathan breathed a sigh of relief and shut the door. 

The fire alarm had stopped ringing as Nathan walked across the parking lot back towards the front doors. Over the intercom he could hear a tired sounding nurse asking everyone to return to the hospital and that it had been a false alarm. Once again he was filled with guilt thinking about how many people they might have put in danger. Maya had said it would all be ok in the end, but he still felt bad. Anyway, it couldn’t be helped and there were more pressing matters at hand. Legolas may have been out of the building but he was a long way from freedom. 

Nathan rounded the corner and spotted Laura and Alex standing where he had left them a few minutes ago, but nearly stopped as he noticed who they were talking to. Nurse Cathy stood before them, speaking to them softly. The two teens in front of her looked deeply uncomfortable, if not a bit relieved. 

“What’s going on,” Nathan said, approaching them. Cathy turned to him, smiling. 

“I was just apologizing to your friends here,” she gestured to the other two, “You three have just been through so much. First you stumble across a lost child and then all this trouble with the fire alarm, when will it end?” She gave a short laugh before turning back to Nathan. “Now where have you been?”

“Putting my bag away in the car.” When Nurse Cathy raised an eyebrow, he continued, “I was in my room and pretty much packed when the alarm went off so I figured that if there was a fire then I might as well save my stuff. And then if we were leaving soon anyway I might as well take it out to the car.”

She nodded and Nathan allowed himself a small sigh of relief. He wasn’t usually very good at acting, but he could do it well under pressure, and he was definitely under pressure now. 

“Well it seems you had excellent foresight my dear,” her smile widened, “You’ve all been checked out and can leave as soon as you’d like, I doubt you want to stay in this place any longer.”

“She’s got that right,” Alex chimed in, grinning, “Let’s get out of here and start our vacation.”  
So Alex could act too. 

As could Laura apparently, though not as well as the other two, a fact she was clearly aware of as she limited herself to a few rather weak sounding words of agreement. Cathy seemed to take no notice of this though, and soon after, the three were on their way back to their rooms. 

Maya met them at the top of the stairs, a wide smile on her face. 

“Did it work?,” she said. 

“Yeah,” replied Nathan, “Legolas is in the car, safe and sound.”

“Good,” Maya said, “Hurry up then and be out as soon as you possibly can. Cathy doesn’t know about Legolas yet, but it’s unlikely she’ll be so desperate to let you go when she does.”

“Thanks a lot for helping us Maya,” Alex grinned. 

“I’m the one who should be thanking you three, after all, the whole rescue mission was my idea.” Maya gave them an apologetic look, “Sorry for all the trouble.”

“It was worth it, though,” said Alex. Laura gave him a skeptical look. 

“I need to finish covering our tracks,” Maya said, already turning to go, “This is probably it, so goodbye for now.”

The three said their hurried goodbyes and Alex and Laura disappeared into their rooms. As Nathan’s stuff was largely divided between them, and his suitcase was already in the car, he decided to head down to check on Legolas and make final preparations for them to leave. He sent them a quick text telling them his plan, and a few moments later he was walking through the parking lot towards the car. 

Legolas wasn’t visible from where he was, so that was good. Nathan could only hope that he hadn’t somehow disappeared. He hadn’t, and as Nathan approached the car he could see Legolas still curled up in the suitcase. It hadn’t been very long since he had left him there, but it still couldn’t be fun to stay hidden for any amount of time. 

Legolas started when Nathan unlocked the car, but smiled when he saw who it was. He sat up slightly when Nathan opened the door. 

“Hey kid,” Nathan said, “How’s it going?”

Legolas only smiled. 

“Alright kid, I’m gonna need you to get out of the suitcase,” Nathan pointed to Legolas, and then to the small bit of seat left behind it. He seemed to understand, and carefully climbed out as Nathan maneuvered the suitcase out from under him. When he was fully out, Nathan shut the suitcase and shoved it into the trunk of the car. He helped Legolas sit in the middle of the back seat where he would be hidden by Alex and Laura, and helped him buckle himself up. Legolas seemed enchanted by the clicking of the device, and had a lot of fun buckling and unbuckling himself from the seat. 

Nathan smiled at him and out of the corner of his eye saw Alex and Laura wheeling their own suitcases through the parking lot towards him. Alex saw Legolas as he drew nearer, and gave him a little wave which Legolas returned. Nathan helped them load their stuff into the car and they took their seats on either side of Legolas.

“Alright then, let’s be off,” he said, once again taking out the GPS and finding directions to the cabin.

“Yes, let’s,” Laura exclaimed, “I know Nurse Cathy doesn’t know about everything yet, and Maya said she’d take care of anything, but I still feel like at any moment a swarm of helicopters are going to descend upon us.”

“Then we’d better be off quickly,” Alex reached around Legolas to squeeze her shoulder, “Gas it Nathan.”

“I think that would be even more suspicious,” Nathan said, smirking as he started the car, “But as soon as we get on the highway I’ll go as fast as the speed limit will allow.”

Legolas gasped as the car began to move, and Nathan could hear Alex saying something to him in a soothing voice. Nathan couldn’t imagine why he would be so surprised by a car, but those questions could wait for when they were at the cabin, and when they could understand even a word that he said. 

As they pulled out of the parking lot, Nathan gave one last last look at the hospital. 

‘Good luck Maya,’ he thought as he pulled away for good. 

\----------------------------

“I said he’s gone,” Maya exclaimed. 

“He can’t be, that’s impossible,” Cathy ran her hands through her faded blond hair, an utterly panicked look on her face, “How could he have possibly escaped?”

“He must have gotten spooked when the fire alarm was pulled and somehow gotten away during the confusion. Maybe someone left his door open a crack or something.” 

“Yes, of course,” Cathy suddenly narrowed her eyes, “You don’t suppose those three kids…”

“Don’t be irrational, not now,” Maya grabbed her shoulders, doing her best to look sympathetic, “Those kids didn’t know anything, and it won’t do us any good to go on a wild goose chase.” 

“Well what are we going to do, they’ll be furious at me if they find out I managed to lose him in only one day.”

They stood silent for several moments, the only sound coming from the hallway next to the empty room they were currently hidden in. 

“How about this,” Maya began slowly, “The two of us are the most familiar with what he looks like, right?”

“Yes.”

“What if I go up and meet with the security guards and try to track him through the security cameras while you go out and look for him.” 

“You would make me go out on foot, at my age?”

“You’re not as familiar with the security system as I am, my dad was a security guard at a mall after all, he took me to work a couple times, so I’m familiar with how it works.”

“I thought you said your father was a dentist.”

“No that was Amy.” It took Maya a huge amount of effort to remain patient with Cathy. “Look you said it yourself, they’re going to be furious if we lose him, and every moment we spend talking is another moment he gets further away from us, and this is the best plan we’ve got right now.”

“How on Earth will I know where to start?”

“Think logically--his room was near the back, right? So the first exit he would come across would be an exit to the back. He’s probably somewhere in the wooded area behind the hospital.”

“How do you know he didn’t go through the main building?”

Maya sighed. She was beginning to grow annoyed. Cathy could be so difficult, even when she was in a state of panic. 

“Someone would have seen him, a kid in a hospital gown away from the children’s ward, we would know.”

“Alright, alright, I’m going,” Cathy began walking briskly towards the door, “But send me a text message when you have a lead, please.”

“Of course.” Maya too left the room and walked into the hallway. She could see the rather small figure of Cathy waddling as quickly as her small legs would allow towards the back of the building. This was too easy, the woman really didn’t think straight when she was panicked. 

Maya headed straight for the hospital’s security control room. Her father wasn’t a security guard, far from in fact, but her brother had posed as one quite often, and this wasn’t the first time she had tampered with the hospital’s security footage. 

Reaching the door to the control room, she gave it a sharp knock, not wanting to be missed. “Timothy,” she called, naming who she predicted was the guard currently inside. A tall, gangly man with light brown hair answered the door. 

“Hi Maya,” he said, his face turning slightly red, “Can I help you?”

Maya smiled sweetly. The poor man had developed a crush on her since she had helped him get out of a very embarrassing situation a few years ago. She hoped he trusted her as much as she thought he did. 

“I need to review some security footage to locate a missing patient.” She entered the room, shutting and locking the door behind her. Timothy didn’t seem to notice, though given how incompetent he usually was it didn’t suprise her. 

“Shouldn’t they call the police for something like that?”

“He can’t have gone far, and it would make Cathy look bad since the patient was under her care.”

“I know how that feels,” his face turned even redder. “Alright,” he turned and walked over to the monitors, “What footage do you need?”

“About that.” She reached into her pocket. His back was still turned to her; he couldn’t see what she was doing. “Sorry about this,” she said, and before he could even think to turn around a syringe was being pressed into his neck. He struggled for a moment, a look of utter confusion on his face, before his eyes closed and he went completely limp. 

Maya eased him onto his chair, trying to sit him as upright as possible. He would be out for several hours, not dead of course. She would never hurt him on purpose. For now he had merely been tranquilized with a larger dose of the stuff they had used to knock Legolas out the night before. His shift wouldn’t end for quite a while, so he was safe from being discovered. 

She used her foot to push his chair out of her way as she leaned over the monitors, searching for the footage she needed to erase. She would have erased the footage from the entire day and the previous night, but that would have been far too incriminating, and she needed her current job. Bummer though, it would have been much quicker. 

First was the footage of her removing Legolas from his room and all the additional footage of herself traveling to the bathroom. Next was the parking lot footage holding any information about the license plate of Nathan, Alex, and Laura’s car. She had made sure to order the nurses in her path to the bathroom elsewhere to evacuate patients, thus not leaving her any eye witnesses. It would be a pain to have to deal with that many people. 

With that out of the way she could focus on Cathy. There was more to do, but that could wait. Right now, that old bitch was her main issue. They should be in position by now. If not, well she could always handle herself if Cathy managed to get back. 

She scrolled through her contacts until she found Cathy’s number. She clicked it and quickly typed out a message. Found him, he’s hiding behind a crate in the delivery area behind the kitchens. 

It wouldn’t take Cathy long to respond. She was doubtless checking her phone constantly, desperate to find the child. Sure enough, moments later an answer popped up. 

How did he get all the way over there??

Maya groaned. This was why she hated her. Even in a panic, Cathy found a way to be difficult. 

I have no idea, but get over there quickly.

It’s quite a walk from where I am right now.

Sorry for sending you to the back of the hospital, now hurry. 

Maya wasn’t sorry, it served the old hag right to have to walk halfway around the entire building. Maybe if she hadn’t decided to work for a bunch of arrogant government pawns she might have been a bit nicer on the woman. And all for nothing too. Truth be told, Maya had sent Cathy to the back of the hospital because it got her away from the building and let Maya do what she needed to. But she had to admit, it had also been because it was a good way from the kitchens. 

Maya took a deep breath and tried to regain focus. She could have her laughs later. After all, she wasn’t out of the water just yet. Turning back to the monitors she erased all the footage she could find that had even the slightest trace of Nathan, Alex, Laura, or the kid in it. It took her quite a while, and she became completely engrossed in it. So engrossed in it, that she didn’t notice until she finished the single word that flashed in a text on her screen. A word sent, not by Cathy, or even those hateful government bastards. A word sent by the only people she could trust. 

Done.

It made Maya smile. Now her biggest threats had been taken care of, and Legolas was secure. And it would stay that way. 

She glanced over at Timothy before shrugging and taking out a different syringe. It may have been dangerous to give him another drug with the tranquilizer still in his system, but they were in a hospital if treatment was necessary. She injected the second liquid into his neck. This would hopefully make him forget the past several hours, or at least make them too hazy for him to remember. She smiled as she held the now empty syringe up to the light. She had been carrying this serum around for a while now and it was nice to finally use it. 

Pocketing it, she took one last look at the computer monitors as though trying to remind herself of anything she may have missed. Thinking of nothing, she quietly opened the door and slipped out into the hallway, her mission complete.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Gosh darn it Maya. I hope that was enough to make up for the shorter previous chapter. A lot of stuff is gonna go down so buckle up my dudes, but for now Legolas is safe.


	8. Down Time

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After escaping the hospital, Legolas and company spend some well earned free time in Nathan and Alex's uncle's cabin. Meanwhile, Thranduil worries a lot.

In the backseat of the car, Nathan could hear Legolas humming. It was soft, but definitely audible and held a certain tremor to it. Nathan guessed that Legolas was trying to calm himself down, as he seemed absolutely terrified by the moving car. It was definitely strange--had he never been in a car before? Though Maya had said that his blood glittered. And he did have pointed ears. Maybe he wasn’t, well human. Maybe he was some sort of alien.

It seemed silly, but Nathan supposed it would explain a lot. The weird language he spoke, his strange appearance, his ability to heal himself from serious injuries, why the government was so keen on capturing him. Though it wouldn’t explain why he was so scared of being in a car; after all, weren’t aliens supposed to have super advanced technology? ‘Maybe he’s not an alien,’ Nathan thought. Well then, what was he? Nathan let out a small sigh. When they got to the cabin safely, then he could ask. Right now they just had to get away without being chased by some armored government car with tinted windows. 

Legolas had stopped humming. Nathan looked in the rearview mirror to see Alex gently stroking his hand and speaking softly to him. Legolas looked even more frightened than he had been when they had first pulled out of the hospital, though they were now on the freeway and going significantly faster. Legolas had wrapped himself tightly in the blanket from earlier and was shaking slightly, his eyes darting around the car. Laura sat awkwardly next to him, clearly unsure what to do. 

Alex continued stroking his hand for a few minutes more before suddenly stopping to reach into his backpack. A moment later he whipped out his phone. Legolas looked on with a mixture of curiosity and confusion, seemingly hypnotized by the device. Alex did something on it and handed it to Legolas who held it as though he thought it might explode. Alex chuckled and tapped it a few times, tilting it every now and then. Legolas’ eyes widened considerably and he shook the phone, speaking to it in his language. Alex and Nathan both laughed at this, and even Laura couldn’t hide the grin on her face. Legolas looked confused. Alex whispered something to him and he nodded, turning back to the phone with renewed determination, all energy focused on it. 

“What are you letting him do on your phone?” Nathan asked. 

Alex grinned, “Letting him play Doodle Jump.”

“I remember that from when we were kids, you still have that on your phone?”

“Yup, and it’s still my favorite.”

Nathan looked at Legolas who was now completely absorbed in the game. He looked as though he was reading a book that held the secrets of the universe, not playing Doodle Jump on a four year old iphone. That was now twice that technology had seemed foreign to him. He couldn’t be an alien. If he was he surely wouldn’t be phased by technology. Surprised by Earth’s technology maybe, but not confused or scared. He looked as though he had never seen modern technology before. 

Nathan let his mind wander back to all the different stories of mythical creatures he had heard over the years. Immediately he was reminded of the stories his grandfather had told him, Alex, and the rest of their cousins when they were young. His grandfather had been Irish, and had always delighted in frightening the children with tales of the faeries. He had even claimed to have met a faerie when he was a young man lost in the forest. Nathan supposed it would explain why he had such an aversion to technology, and probably even his strange appearance (his ears were strangely pointy for a human). But why would a faerie be in Washington? Weren’t they supposed to be from the U.K. or something? He decided to set that idea on the backburner, he could ask Legolas when they got to the cabin. 

The next several hours of travel passed uneventfully. Legolas continued to be enthralled by the iphone, and Alex seemed to have a lot of fun showing him its many different features. Legolas seemed particularly interested by the camera, though he nearly burst into tears when Alex took a picture of him. It took Alex several minutes to assure Legolas that he hadn’t stolen his soul. At least that’s what Legolas seemed to think, as he had made a number of tearful motions towards his heart, and then to the phone. 

It was late afternoon by the time they arrived at the cabin, and the sun hung low in the sky. Nathan pulled the car up to the large, red-colored house, and let out a happy sigh. Finally, home. At least for two weeks. 

Nathan and Laura began unloading the car as Alex helped Legolas stumble out of the car, supporting him as he hobbled along on his still injured leg. Legolas was still enchanted by the phone, and it took several minutes for him to get it back. 

Nathan unlocked the door to the house, and pushed the door open to reveal the familiar foyer. It was a sizable house, far from a mansion, but easily enough to fit all of them. It belonged to his uncle, a real outdoorsy type who had been more than happy to let Nathan use it for a week or two. His uncle had indicated however, that he might be dropping by sometime to check on them. Something told Nathan however, that even if his uncle were to discover Legolas, he probably wouldn’t call the government, or whoever was after him. No, Nathan was sure of that, after all the man had always been a free spirit with a strong disdain for authority. Besides, the idea of harboring a non-human from the government would probably thrill him. Nathan sighed, they had nothing to be afraid of. They were safe, and he needed to stop worrying. Plus, given his uncle’s occupation as a Zoology professor at a local university, he might know what Legolas was. 

Legolas meanwhile, was looking around happily at the house. His eyes darted back and forth, taking in all of the different appliances on display. When Laura flipped on the lights he gave a small yelp, and stared up at them in wonder. Nathan frowned, had he never even seen electricity before? Legolas hid behind Alex’s legs, staring up in fear at the lights. Alex said something to him, too quiet for Nathan to hear, and gently nudged Legolas out from behind him. Legolas continued to stare at the lights, looking on in awe as Nathan and Laura went around the room turning on the lamps. Legolas seemed to relax when Alex put his hand near one of the lightbulbs, showing him that it was safe.

Nathan led the group upstairs to where most of the bedrooms were situated, Legolas looking around wildly whenever they turned on a light. Alex glanced at Laura. 

“So…,” he said, grinning from ear to ear, “Do you wanna share a room, or..”

Laura gave him a look, “My mother was already opposed to me coming on this trip, and quite frankly I think she would murder me if she found out I was sharing a room with you.”

“I know, I know, your mother hates me.”

“She doesn’t hate you, she just thinks that you’re a bad influence, which you are.”

“That’s fair.” He laughed, “ Well if you’re sure, but anytime you change your mind…”

“Not on your life.”

“Alright, alright.”

Nathan sighed and guided Legolas to a room at the end of the hallway. It was the room where his young cousins tended to stay whenever they visited and contained two twin beds with a variety of toys, some of which he hoped Legolas would enjoy. 

“Here’s where you can stay.” He gestured around the room with his hand. Legolas seemed to understand and entered the room with Nathan's help, looking around in wonder at it. He smiled widely, running his hand over the bright green bedspread patterned with large pink flowers, and giving a little sigh as he did so. His attention was then drawn to the bright green boxes of toys on the other side of the room. He gasped and pointed to them excitedly. Nathan smiled at his joy and helped him over, pulling out a purple plastic horse, one of those My Little Pony toys. Legolas looked at it with wonder, stroking his finger over the mane and down over its smooth back. He touched its face, the smile on his face growing wider, looking at it as though it was the most wonderful thing he had ever seen. 

“Alright,” Nathan said getting up, “Uh, have fun, i’ll be back in a few minutes.” Legolas seemed to understand, because he quickly turned his attention back to the toy. Nathan left him to play, walking down the hallway towards Nathan and Laura’s rooms. His clothes were currently distributed between their luggage as he had needed to make room for Legolas in his own suitcase. Now that Legolas was out of the suitcase though, he wanted his clothes back. 

A few minutes later and his clothes and other belongings were back in his room, half of them folded and put away in the dresser that stood at the back of his room, and the other half thrown haphazardly into his suitcase after he had gotten tired of trying to be neat. His phone was plugged in to charge on the bedside table, and his school binder was lying on the desk. This was as neat as his room would ever be. 

He returned to Legolas’s room to find the boy still sitting on the floor, surrounded by toys. He was currently holding a Princess Peach toy, moving its arms from side to side, still grinning. He turned when he heard Nathan at the door, holding up the toy for him to see. 

“It’s very nice isn’t it,” Nathan said. 

Legolas gave a little nod and turned back to adjusting its arms. Nathan reached for a Darth Vader action figure and pressed the little button under its cape. The little lightsaber lit up and a voice came from the figure. 

“I am altering the deal. Pray I don’t alter it any further.”

At this Legolas let out a gasp and scrambled towards Nathan, pointing at the toy and speaking rapidly in his language. Legolas looked at it for a few moments before reaching for it hesitantly. Nathan handed it to him, flipping up the cape to show him the noise button. Legolas pressed it carefully. 

“I find your lack of faith disturbing.”

Legolas squealed and dropped the toy. Nathan laughed and picked it up, handing it back to him. 

“Never seen Star Wars before have you,” he said, more to himself than Legolas. 

They sat that way for a while, Nathan showing Legolas the features of different toys and Legolas treating each as though it were the most amazing thing in the world. He seemed especially taken with the toy animals, especially the My Little Pony figures. Nathan tried his best to remember their names, and taught them to Legolas as best he could. Legolas seemed happy anyway. 

Eventually Nathan got up, his stomach rumbling. He hadn’t eaten in hours and he was beginning to feel it. He was sure that the others must be feeling similarly, especially Legolas who probably hadn’t eaten since this morning, and Nathan wasn’t even sure that he had. He glanced at the clock on the bedside table, 5:48. He should start making something for dinner. He knew his uncle kept the cabin stocked with non-perishables, but he wasn’t sure what he would find in the downstairs pantry. 

“Hey Legolas,”

Legolas looked up from his toys. He said something in his language that sounded like an agreement. 

“Um,” how would he explain this, “I need to go make food. To eat.” He rubbed his stomach and mimed eating food. 

Legolas seemed to understand and stood up, looking expectantly at him, then the door. 

“Oh no,” he shook his head and pointed down at the toys, “You can play here, I’ll get you when I’m done.”

Legolas gave him a strange look and pointed at the door, saying something. 

Nathan sighed, “Alright then, you can come along if you want.” He helped Legolas to the door and the two left the room. On the way back to the first floor Nathan noticed Legolas once again looking around at nearly everything in the house, especially the lights. As they rounded the corner to enter the living room however, Legolas let out a sharp squeal, stumbling back. After a moment, Nathan saw why. 

Alex and Laura had gotten the TV working and were watching what looked like some Marvel movie. At the moment some guy played by Benedict Cumberbatch was getting beaten up by some bald lady. He didn’t know what was going on, he’d never been a huge fan of superhero movies. He knew Alex would be annoyed with him if he spoke up about his ignorance. Alex had always been super into that kinda stuff. Legolas seemed to be as well, judging from how he had begun to pull Nathan over to the couch, gazing in wonder at the characters on screen. His eyes were the size of saucers, and Nathan could see his hands shaking slightly. Nathan frowned, he looked almost afraid. 

Alex saw Legolas watching with them and patted the seat beside him, inviting him to sit. Legolas didn’t notice at first, and it took a few tries before he acknowledged him. Legolas made his way clumsily around the couch, eyes still hooked to the screen, and sat beside Alex. 

So he had never seen superhero movies before huh, just another thing for Nathan to add to his growing mental list of weird stuff about Legolas. In fact, he thought, from the way Legolas reacted to the TV, it was almost as though he had never seen one before. He remembered his earlier theory that Legolas was some kind of faerie. 

As Nathan considered this, he made his way to the kitchen, opening the pantry door and surveying his contents. He grabbed a box of mac-n-cheese and a family size bag of Doritos. He could go to the store tomorrow and get actual food, but until then this would do. He grabbed a pot from under the stove and filled it with water, and set it on the burner. 

He stepped back to wait for it to boil, and looked over at Legolas, now lost in thought. Legolas being some sort of magical something-or-other did seem to be a viable option now, especially with his surprise at all things technology, but then how would he have gotten to Washington. Had he been kidnapped or something? Was that why the government had wanted him? It would also explain how panicked he’d been when he’d woken up. But then wouldn’t he have been a lot more afraid of the three of them. 

The water was boiling. Nathan dumped the dry pasta in and glanced over to where Legolas was sitting with Alex and Laura. He was curled up next to Alex, holding on tightly to his arm as a fight scene played. Legolas seemed to have relaxed a bit since he’d come into the room, and Nathan figured the shock had worn off. At least he had stopped visibly shaking. 

A few minutes later the food was ready. Nathan spooned it into some bowls he had found in one of the top cabinets, and emptied the bag of Doritos onto the largest plate he could find. Dinner. 

“Turn that movie off, it’s time for dinner,” Nathan called. 

“Alright mom,” Alex called back, earning a chuckle from Laura. Nathan frowned, he was so not motherly. 

It was hard to tear Legolas away from the TV screen, and when the movie was paused Legolas nearly jumped out of his skin, but eventually the four of them were seated around the kitchen table. Legolas stared down in wonder at the food for several minutes before he began to eat. As he took a bite of the mac-n-cheese his face took on a strange expression, something between curiosity and disgust. Nathan didn’t think the mac-n-cheese was that bad. He wasn’t surprised that Legolas had never had it before, after all, if he was some kind of faerie he probably ate mostly nuts and berries, or something natural like that. At least he knew how to use a fork. 

Legolas definitely didn’t like the Doritos though. Nathan guessed he had gotten one of the spicier ones, and within seconds was acting as though he had just swallowed an ember. A few sips of water later though, and he was back to normal. He didn’t touch the chips for the rest of the meal. 

Nathan figured that this was as good a time as any to ask about what Legolas was. 

“Legolas,” Legolas turned to him. Damn, how was he supposed to mime asking what Legolas was, after all, he couldn’t slice open his arm and ask him why his blood glittered. He settled on pointing to the boy’s pointed ears, and then his own, shrugging his shoulders as though to ask why. Legolas looked at him for a few moments, trying to figure him out. His eyes suddenly lit up and he pointed at Nathan and then at each of the others in turn. 

“Firiath,” then pointed to himself, “Elen.”

Nathan nodded. Alex and Laura had put down their forks to look at Legolas. 

“You are Elen”, Legolas nodded, “Nathan pointed at himself and the other two, “Human.”

He turned to Alex and Laura, “So I guess he’s an Elen, whatever that is.”

Laura nodded, “Yeah, at least I hope that’s what he means.”

Nathan had other questions for Legolas. Where did he come from, what exactly did being an Elen mean, how had he wound up here. Unfortunately, at the moment he could think of no feasible way to mime out any of those things, nor could he think of a way for Legolas to mime back any response that would be even halfway understandable. So dinner was finished in relative silence. 

After dinner, Nathan joined Alex, Laura, and Legolas on the couch to finish the movie, which, Nathan learned from a very annoyed Alex, was called Doctor Strange. Legolas was very amusing to watch during the movie, as every action taken by the characters seemed to fascinate him. He clung to Alex during every fight scene, and Nathan thought he might faint during the final battle with the evil magic space god. Luckily though, the movie ended with no major injuries, and Nathan decided to look for some popcorn while Alex and Laura chose another one. It was only about 7:30 after all, way too early to be sleeping, especially on Fall break. Even if they had just broken a magic kid out of a hospital. 

There wasn’t any popcorn. Nathan dug through the pantry for a good five minutes before sighing and getting up. When he walked back into the living room he saw that Alex and Laura had chosen an animated movie, probably for the benefit of Legolas. He couldn’t remember which one it was. It was about the girl with the necklace who lived on an island, he knew his little sister had watched it. 

“Which one is this,” Nathan whispered to them. 

“It’s Moana, Nathan, geez do you live under a rock,” replied Alex, “What movies do you even watch?”

“I like documentaries.”

“Could you be more boring.”

“Hey I like Star Wars too, and you’re just bullying me cause I don’t watch Marvel movies.”

“Everyone likes Star Wars Nathan, and maybe I am bullying you. I just think you should appreciate different kinds of movies.”

“DC is better.”

“You take that back right now.”

“Hush,” Laura chimed in, “some of us are trying to watch.” She pointed to Legolas who watched spellbound as the characters on screen danced and sang about the ocean or something. No, Nathan was being mean, it was a good movie. 

About halfway through though, Nathan noticed Legolas starting to drift off. He was leaning more heavily on Alex and Nathan could see his eyes starting to droop. Alex had taken notice of this, and with surprising speed and ease, he picked the boy up so that one of his arms supported his legs while the other held his back. 

“I’ll go put him to bed,” Alex said, “little guy’s been through a lot today.” 

“Yeah,” whispered Nathan, “Here, I’ll show you to his room.”

The floor on the way back upstairs was much more creaky than Nathan had remembered it being earlier. This observation could simply have been due to the fact that they were now accompanied by a sleeping child. Once or twice while walking Legolas would stir and Nathan and Alex would stop, stock still, and wait for him to stop moving. It took them a few minutes to get to the bedroom. 

The room was very dark when they entered it, but as neither were willing to risk waking Legolas by turning on a light, they were forced to squint hard in the dim moonlight coming from outside, and shuffle their way over to one of the beds. Nathan drew back the covers and Alex laid Legolas out carefully on the bed. Nathan pulled the covers up around him, tucking him in like his mom had when he was little. 

“I feel kinda bad about making him sleep in that hospital gown.” Alex whispered to Nathan. 

“Well it’s too late now to do much about it,” Nathan whispered back, “We can lend him some of our clothes in the morning. He’ll be fine until then.”

“Yeah I guess so.”

“Let’s head back downstairs.”

Alex turned to look at Legolas and brushed some of the hair out his face. “He’s so cute isn’t he. I wish I had a little brother like him, I’ve just got older brothers, and all of them suck.”

Nathan chuckled and turned to go, and after a moment Alex followed. As Nathan closed the door, he gave one last look at Legolas, sleeping soundly. 

“Sweet dreams, little guy.”

  
  


\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Thranduil was nearly beside himself with worry. It had been almost four days since his son, his precious son, had disappeared. His worst fears had been almost surely confirmed when his guards found Legolas’ footprints on a path through the woods, pursued by the massive tracks of a spider. If that wasn’t terrible enough, they had also found a small puddle of his child’s blood. All that remained was a scrap of white clothing. 

Thranduil would have thoroughly lost hope had it not been for one very strange thing his search parties had discovered. Legolas’ tracks had ended at a pool of water, along with those of the beast’s. However, while the beast’s footprints indicated it had turned away from the pool and wandered back off into the woods, no other footprints had been discovered around the pool that could have belonged to Legolas. It was as though he had simply disappeared. He had been informed that his guards had at first assumed that the beast had managed to catch Legolas while he was in the water, and had either eaten him there or dragged him off, but there was no trail of blood that would indicate such an atrocity. They had next assumed that he had drowned in the pool, but it simply wasn’t deep enough, especially for a strong swimmer such as Legolas. It was also too shallow for any sort of monster to hide beneath its surface. So what had become of his son…

“My King,” Thranduil was snapped out of his ponderings by the frantic voice of the messenger. 

“What is it?” he snapped. 

“Mithrandir has arrived at your palace and seeks immediate council with you.”

“Tell him I’m busy,”

“Well you see my lord...,” the messenger began, but was cut off by a commotion in the hall that sounded rather like several people shouting. A moment later a rather disheveled old man with a long gray beard and a pointed gray hat entered the study, followed by a number of palace guards. 

“Pardon my manners King Thranduil,” he said giving a hasty bow, “But I must speak with you at once.”

“We apologize for the intrusion your majesty,” one of his guards panted, “He doesn’t look it but he’s remarkably quick.”

“It’s all right,” Thranduil sighed, “You are dismissed, please leave me to speak with my…guest.”

“Of course my king,” the guard bowed and led his men out of the room. That left Thranduil and Mithrandir alone. 

“What business have you in my realm Mithrandir, that is so urgent you would barge into my palace practically unannounced. Do you know of what ill has befallen this kingdom in the past days.”

Mithrandir’s eyes softened and he looked at Thranduil with sadness. “I had received word, though I had hoped it wasn’t true. So the boy has truly disappeared.”

“Gone without a trace,” King Thranduil said despairingly, “It’s been nearly four days.”

Mithrandir nodded sympathetically, “How horrible Thranduil, my greatest condolences to you and the kingdom.”

“I thank you for your condolences Mithrandir, now what business have you in my realm that cannot wait? Has the Dark One made another move?”

“In truth I am unsure, though I will do my best to explain. May I sit down?”

Thranduil gestured to a chair opposite himself and the old traveler took a seat. 

“Thank you Thranduil, now where to begin,” He took a deep breath, “I suppose I must have been rather lucky, if one could consider my circumstance luck, to have been passing near to Mirkwood when an event occurred that caused me great unrest. You see I had made camp for the night, and was quite ready to tuck in, when I felt the strangest feeling I believe I ever had. It was as though an invisible mist had cut through me, a sort of feeling of red, if the color red could be a sensation. I recognized strange magic immediately, and, fearing some influence of the Dark Lord may be at play, made off as quick as I could for your kingdom.”

“That is a strange tale, and you are sure you did not imagine the strange feeling you experienced.”

“I’m old, not senile Thranduil, and I know magic when I sense it. No, strange forces were at play, forces I don’t believe I am familiar with.”

Thranduil leaned forward slightly, looking Mithrandir in the eyes. “My son disappeared several days ago, and the circumstances of his disappearance are admittedly strange. Could the two events be in some way connected.”

“Perhaps,” Mithrandir said slowly. 

“Mithrandir,” Thranduil nearly whispered, his voice catching slightly, “Do you believe my child has been captured by the Dark One, by Sauron.”

“I do not believe so,” he said, and Thranduil breathed a sigh of relief, “I doubt the Dark One has any use for an elven child, even a prince. And even if he meant to hold the boy as a hostage, he would undoubtedly have sent some foul messenger by now.”

“That is good, perhaps I can rest a bit easier now.”

“Yes, though we still have two rather large problems at hand. Now, enough about me, you had mentioned that the circumstances surrounding the disappearance of your son were strange. How so? Do tell me the full story.”

So Thranduil told him all he knew about what had happened that night. Mithrandir listened intently, eyes widening when Thranduil mentioned the spider, and narrowing when he told him of the disappearing footprints in the pool.

Mithrandir took several minutes to think over all that had been said before speaking. 

“These are strange happenings indeed good king. I would not be surprised if there was some element of magic involved, perhaps related in a way to what I had sensed earlier. And you said he was thought to have disappeared about three or four nights ago.”

“That is correct, yes.”

Mithrandir thought for a moment. “Good king, I must have you show me this pool as soon as you possibly can, I only ask that you give me a little while to rest.”

“Certainly,” Thranduil rose from his seat, “How about you take one hour to rest yourself and your horse, and then we shall meet at the gates of the palace so that I may take you to the pool. I must know if you can help me to find my son.” 

An hour later the two stood gazing out over the pool, both silent. Thranduil looked at Mithrandir who stood watching the pool intently, brows furrowed with concentration. The old man suddenly knelt down to dip his fingers into the water, swirling them around. At once, a look of understanding filled his eyes and he stood up to face Thranduil. 

“If this is the pool where the young prince vanished then we are indeed dealing with magic.”

“If it is magic then can you do anything about it, can you bring Legolas back?” Thranduil said, more than a hint of desperation in his voice. 

“I don’t know.” Mithrandir took a deep breath, “It is a strange magic at play here, though not entirely unknown to me. I did not recognize it earlier because it was so far off and because I had nearly forgotten about it, but I now remember. It is a strange magic indeed.”

“Then can you tell me what has happened to my son, or where he is, or something?”

Mithrandir gave the pool a hard look before kneeling down again. “I’m afraid i’m going to need more time,” he said, “I am not well versed in this type of magic. That being said, I am sure that I will be able to determine what has happened to your son. I merely require time.”

For a long time the two stayed by the pool, Mithrandir swirling his hand around in the pool and taking an occasional note on a small notepad he had produced from his robes. Thranduil watched him, never moving, unable to move. He wasn’t sure why. Perhaps some small hope that Mithrandir would suddenly leap up and tell him where his child was. But he only sat by the pool, observing and taking notes. 

“Thranduil,” Mithrandir said, snapping the king out of his trance. 

“Yes Mithrandir, have you determined anything?”

Mithrandir stood still for a moment before nodding his head hesitantly. “In a way, but I need to know one more thing, I fear I have forgotten, In what state was the moon about three nights ago?”

“Oh, it was a harvest moon of course, the whole castle celebrated.”

Mithrandir’s eyes suddenly widened and something between excitement and fear filled his face. He spoke quickly and urgently. “We must return to the castle immediately Thranduil, I have much I must do before tonight.”

“Tonight, what?”

“I believe I may have a way of getting your son back, but I can’t be sure. I must consult my books, will you give me access to your library?”

“Mithrandir, I would give my life to ensure the safety of my son.”

“I’ll take that as a yes then, good. As I have said, it will take time, but I believe it can be done, perhaps by tonight.”

When they returned to the palace, Mithrandir immediately took his bag to the library and locked the doors, refusing anyone who came for him. He stayed that way until nearly midnight, when he finally emerged, a victorious look on his face, clutching a long piece of parchment. 

“I have done much research,” he said to an exhausted Thranduil who had instructed his servants to come for him if Mithrandir left the library. 

“And,” sighed Thranduil, “Can my son be found?”

Mithrandir’s expression shifted slightly, his eyes hardening, “That depends on you my friend. Come now, we haven’t any time to waste.” 

And with that Thranduil found himself being led shockingly quickly out of his own palace, (really how was such an old looking person so fast), and through the woods back towards the pool. Mithrandir, strangely enough seemed to know the way perfectly, as though he had ridden this way a hundred times. The two were alone, as Mithrandir had hastily declined offers of the guards to escort them. Thranduil had thought it a good idea to have some sort of protection, especially if the beast that had pursued Legolas returned, but Mithrandir had insisted, and right to the guards’ faces, that they would only get in the way and that he would be perfectly capable of defending the king if it came down to it. Thranduil had his doubts, but his inhibitions were outweighed by his desire to find his son, so there they were. 

They eventually reached the pool, which in the moonlight appeared a dark green. Not terribly magical, but appearances could be deceiving. Mithrandir pulled the parchment from his robes and carefully unrolled it, laying it on the ground in front of him. Thranduil looked hard at it, trying to find something that would tell him where his son was, but it only contained a mash of symbols he didn't understand. Mithrandir rose from the ground and looked at him. 

“Now we get to the tricky part,” he sighed, “You see, I have determined, in a way, where your son has been taken.”

“Then where is he?”

“I don’t know exactly, but what I do know is that he is no longer in this world.”

“Whatever do you mean, not in this world? Where is he?”

“I don’t know Thranduil.” Mithrandir’s voice softened. “I really am terribly sorry that I don’t. But what I do know is that I can send you to the world where your son is. What you shall find there is a mystery, but I hope that you can find your son.”

“Send me there at once then, I must find him.”

Mithrandir held out his hand. “In a moment I will, but we must discuss a few things first.”

“What then, tell me quickly.”

“In two weeks I will reopen the portal. You have until then to find your son, or at least make it back. I don’t know how many more times I will be able to reopen the portal and I’d like not to lock you out of our world if I can help it.”

“I have no intention of returning without my son.”

“You may have to, Thranduil,” Mithrandir sighed, “I am truly sorry, but if your son is lost then he is lost, but your people need their king. I’m sure your council can manage alone for two weeks, but not indefinitely. Thranduil please, you must promise me, whatever happens if you can return to the portal you must. Even empty-handed, as it breaks my heart to say.”

Thranduil scowled. “Very well Mithrandir, I swear on my honor that I shall return to the portal in two weeks time,” he paused to take a breath before continuing, “No matter if I do or do not find my son. Now can we get on with the spell?”

“Of course,” Mithrandir clutched his staff,“I would advise you to stand back my friend,” he said, “This is a bit tricky and it would be a shame if I were to set you on fire.”

Thranduil quickly moved several paces behind him. 

Mithrandir took a deep breath and raised his staff, looking at the parchment before him. A deep chanting arose from him, and spread throughout the clearing until it seemed to be inside of Thranduil himself, and he clutched his chest. Slowly, like a candle flickering, a light rose up out of the staff’s head, drowning out the moon and replacing it with a radiance unlike anything Thranduil had ever seen. The chanting grew louder and louder until it seemed to be coming from everywhere at once. Thranduil stumbled. The light was too bright, he couldn’t see. He couldn’t hear. He couldn’t think. 

And then all at once, it stopped. Thranduil doubled over, gasping for air. A few paces in front of him he heard Mithrandir’s staff hit the ground, and a series of gasping noises coming from the man. So he wasn’t so invulnerable after all. Thranduil raised his head slowly as he caught his breath. To his surprise, the pool which had once been a murky dark green was now a radiant silver, as though it were made of moonlight. No, not moonlight, the light from the staff. 

“Well,” grunted Mithrandir, raising himself to look at Thranduil. “There it is, the gate to the world where your son is lost.”

“May I go in, or must you do something more to finish the spell?”

“The spell is finished--you may go in, but…” Mithrandir put his hand on Thranduil’s shoulder, “As I told you earlier, I know not what kind of world you shall find on the other side. I do not know what fate has met your son, and I do not know what fate will meet you. Please Thranduil, be careful.”

“I will Mithrandir,” Thranduil gave a small smile, “Thank you very much.”

He made his way to the pool and dipped a toe into the water. To his surprise it was warm, almost like a bath. He waded further in, not minding his now very wet robes. 

“Remember,” Mithrandir called out to him, “Two weeks, or I may enter the world myself to find you.”

Thranduil nodded and continued wading in, almost hypnotized by the swirling silver water. Suddenly the water seemed to grow very deep and he gasped as he sank in. His robes had grown very heavy with water, and though he was a strong swimmer, they seemed to pull him down. No, something else was pulling him down. The pool grew bright around him, drowning out his vision. He felt himself be dragged down, deeper than the pool should have been. The light had consumed him, he was drowning in it, being pulled down, down, down, down. 

And then it stopped. 

Thranduil gasped as he raised his head out of the water, suddenly able to see again. Had the spell worked, was he in another world? He was sitting on his hands and knees in a pool of murky brown water. But the water had seemed so deep only moments ago. He must be in another world.

Suddenly there was shouting. There was a great commotion around him and he looked up to see the bewildered faces of several very oddly dressed men. 

High above him, an airplane began its descent. 

  
  
  
  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry that chapter took so long to get uploaded, a lot of stuff was going on in my life and I didn't have a lot of time to write. So yeah, Legolas is confused by multicolored ponies, Nathan is confused by Marvel movies, Thranduil is confused by magic, you get the idea. Hope you enjoyed this chapter and as always, stay safe out there. 
> 
> Please excuse my translations for the elvish Legolas speaks. There are a lot of different dialects, and I tried to be as accurate as possible. If anyone wants to correct me, please do, I beg of you. 
> 
> Also anyone who likes doodle jump gets an imaginary cookie.

**Author's Note:**

> Hi y'all, thanks so much for reading. This is my first attempt at a fanfiction, so I hope I'm doing a good job. 
> 
> If it wasn't clear, Legolas is a child in this, about the equivalent of an 11 year old human. Also in this universe elves sleep like regular humans. Please excuse this slight deviation from cannon. 
> 
> Sorry this chapter was a bit short, I'll try to have a longer second chapter up soon. Until then, take care, and please make sure to wash your hands and avoid crowded places.


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